Only Human
by duncundog
Summary: "We're all only human..." The creepypasta gang wake up one day in the woods to find themselves not... themselves. They're human. Not knowing what happened or what they should do, they head to a small town where mystery, horror, humor, and lots of crazy adventures await them. Will they discover what happened, and can they find a way to change back?
1. Chapter 1

_What...? W-where am I? Last I remember... Last I remember I was walking through the woods. I killed that guy and ate his kidney, then was heading back towards my hideout. So what happened? Where am I now?_

A set of eyelids flickered slowly open, revealing a pair of sky blue orbs within, and a pale hand reached up, brushing away a few strands of chestnut brown hair from a similarly pale forehead. Frowning, a small groan escaped their lips as the person squeezed shut their eyes, cringing in pain and clutching his head. "Ow... The hell happened...?" His voice was smooth and a bit deep, something like velvet or a warm, soothing cup of tea. Pushing back on his arm, he slowly propped himself up, moving into a semi-sitting position and rubbing his forehead, obviously in pain.

"Ugh, finally! I was wondering when the fuck you were gonna wake up!" a loud, irritable voice suddenly exclaimed, causing him to look up in surprise, blue eyes wide. Before him, with arms crossed over his red-stained, white hoodie, was a boy about his age with long brown hair, cerulean blue eyes, and a rather sour expression on his face. Something about him was familiar, but he just couldn't put his finger on it.

He opened his mouth to say something, but nothing came out. Who was this guy? Did he know him? He was sure he did, but he just wasn't sure where from or why.

"You gonna keep staring or say something?" the boy asked impatiently, scowling a bit at him.

"Uh..." he trailed off, not sure what he wanted him to say. "Do I, uh- Do I know you?" he asked a bit reluctantly, frowning as he tried to remember if he did or not.

The boy gaped at him, clearly taken aback. "Do- Do you know me?! We're best friends, for crying out loud! The fuck, Jack?!"

His frown deepened, wondering what on earth he was talking about. Best friends? And he knew his name? He narrowed his eyes, taking a closer look at him. Something was so familiar, and yet...

The boy raised his brows, giving him an expectant look. "Jeff..." he prompted, leaning forward just a bit as if to emphasize his claim.

Jack's eyes widened as he stared in shock at the boy who claimed to be Jeff. The Jeff. As in Jeff The Killer. No... way...

"Y-You're Jeff? But... but you look so different! So... human!" he stammered, his mind scrambling at this new revelation.

"Yeah, and...?" he said, scowling fiercely. "You don't exactly look like a peach yourself, moron."

Jack frowned, not sure what he meant. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"You kidding me?" he asked incredulously. "Look in a mirror, dude! You're fucking human!"

"What?!" the shout erupted from his throat as he shot to his feet, staring wide-eyed at his hands which were now not a charcoal gray but instead a pale, milky white. Reaching up, he tentatively touched the edge of his eyes, feeling none of the sticky ooze that normally leaked from them.

"You should see your eyes," Jeff commented casually. "You've got some."

His eyes widened, surprised. He had... eyes? Looking around, he spotted a puddle a few feet away in a dip in the ground. Walking over, he knelt down, staring at the person whom was reflected back. He saw a boy, about seventeen years in age, with pale, flawless skin and chestnut brown hair that fell over his forehead. The one feature that stuck out most to him, though, was the set of sky blue eyes that stared back at him, glimmering in the watery reflection.

"This... This is insane," he murmured, staring back at his own eyes, gently touching at the soft skin right below them. "How did this happen?"

"Beats me," Jeff replied, shrugging a bit and crossing his arms over his chest again. "Last thing I remember I was hanging out with BEN in the woods here and BOOM, here I am, waking up human again."

"Wait," JAck said, standing straight again and turning to look at him. "BEN? You were with him? Then where is he?"

Jeff paused, mouth open as of in preparation to say something. He slowly closed his mouth again, clearly unsure. "Uh..." he trailed off uncertainly, causing Jack to roll his new set of eyes.

"We should find him," he said, shoving his hands into his hoodie pockets and starting past his friend, leaves crunching under his feet and he walked off through the woods.

"Hey, wait up!" Jeff called, running a moment to catch up to him, looking a bit irritated but saying nothing more about it, instead just falling in beside him and walking through the woods alongside his friend.

* * *

They'd only been walking for a few minutes when they were suddenly drawn to the sound of a voice yelling somewhere near by. Curious, they started towards it, getting closer so that they could hear it better. It was a girl, likely high school age, and she sounded incredibly frustrated.

"Ugh, this is such shit!" she screamed, letting out a frustrated scream. Now recognizing the voice, Jeff began to back away a bit while Jack moved hesitantly closer, moving forward until he could see her through the trees. What he saw surprised him. They certainly weren't the only way news who had become human now. She had as well.

"Why me?! This doesn't even make sense! I mean, come on! I look like I just fell out of an Aeropostale add!" she shrieked, clutching at her silky blond hair angrily.

"Uh, Lucy...?" he questioned quietly, stepping forward a bit in an attempt to catch her attention. She didn't seem to notice though.

"Where the fuck even am I?! Is this Slender's woods, or just some random ass forest?! And why am I even in a forest to begin with?!"

"Lucy..."

"This is just absolutely awful! How could this have possibly happened?! And where is my fucking bracelet?!"

"Lucy!"

She finally stopped her ranting, turning to look at him. Her electric blue eyes widened and she stared at him in surprise, pink lips parted in shock. "Jack?!" she asked, clearly taken aback by his appearance. "What happened to you?! You have eyes!"

He nodded, replying calmly, "I'm not sure what happened. I awoke here in these woods with this human body, but have no recollection of why." Then glancing over his shoulder, he added, "Jeff's here too."

Behind him, Jeff's eyes widened as he turned a dark glare onto E.J. "Why the fuck would you throw me under the bus like that?" he hissed under his breath.

Jack rolled his eyes, muttering, "Lucy's not as scary as you seem to think. Unlike Jane, she isn't trying to kill you, and unlike Sally, she doesn't purposefully annoy you. I don't get your deal with her."

"Are you kidding me?" he hissed, glaring at him. "She drinks oil. Drinks oil! And have you seen that mask and those burns? The piercings? She's fucking scary as shit!"

"She doesn't have any burns or piercings now, right? Not even her mask. " Jack replied, gesturing at the impatient looking blonde who, in fact, had not a single burn nor piercing on her. "And I eat kidneys right in front of you all the time, so why you think her drinking oil is scary is far beyond me."

"You boys done?" she asked, tapping her foot on the leave strewn ground and staring at them with a bored expression. It was remarkable how much she looked like your average teenager in that moment, and it struck them how that must have been her exact appearance before becoming a creepypasta. Just an average, blond haired, blue eyed girl who looked and behaved like any other teenage girl. It was really weird to them to see her without all her piercings or her black tongue or signature bracelet. Then again, it was also weird to see Jeff with brown hair, blue eyes, lightly tanned skin, and without his signature Chelsea smile. Same went for Jack and his pale skin and blue eyes. They all looked so different.

"Uh, yeah, we're done," Jack replied, shaking himself from his thoughts, aware that both his friends were giving him odd looks.

"Alright," Lucy said a bit hesitantly, "Well, what now? What are we gonna do exactly?"

Jeff shrugged, replying, "Find the others, I guess. I was with BEN before this all happened, so I'd assume he's around here somewhere, right?"

She nodded in agreement, deciding that made sense. "Well then, I guess we should go find him, huh?" she said, looking around before choosing some random direction and moving off to go look around. Jack followed after her, and Jeff went to protest before realizing he would be ignored and instead sighed in defeat and followed after the both of them.

* * *

"It has been three hours. Three fucking hours, and we haven't found anybody."

Jeff was grumbling in complaint as he followed E.J. and Lucy through the woods, playing with his knife. He swung it around a bit, narrowly missing Lucy and causing her to glare at him maliciously. He backed away a bit, not wanting to tick her off. He may have a knife, which was far more dangerous than her silly little bracelet, but she still had an awful temper, and so getting into an argue net with her wouldn't be fun. She was almost worse than Jane sometimes when it came to their fights. Almost.

"Calm your tits, dude," Lucy said calmly. "I'm sure we'll find someone. We can't have been the only ones to change."

Jack nodded in agreement, although they couldn't really see do to his mask covering his face. He'd found it hanging in a tree somewhere along the way along with his scalpel, Lucy's bracelet and mask, both of Toby's axes, Hoodie's knife, Sally's teddy bear, Masky's mask, Violet's daggers and swords, Clockwork's knife, and Jeff's knife stuck into the trunk. Why all their possessions were hanging in a single tree was a mystery, but at least it was convenient. Well, except that now they had to carry everyone else's things until they found them.

Jeff grunted, weighed down by Toby's axes, Hoodie's knife, Clockwork's knife, and his own weapon. E.J., meanwhile, carried his scalpel and had Violet's swords strapped to his back and daggers held in one hand while Lucy carried only Masky's mask and Sally's bear because Jeff was apparently not trusted to carry the freaking teddy bear despite being allowed to carry nearly every sharp object in their possession. How that worked, he had no idea.

Lucy sighed, stopping and placing her hands on her hips. "This isn't working. There's no one here." Just as she finished saying that there was a loud burst of shrill screaming, and they all turned in surprise to see a tan girl with long brown hair and blue eyes running straight for them. She tackled down Jeff, causing him to yelp in surprise as the weapons were knocked from his hands. Lucy shrieked, and both her and Jack ducked as the collection of knives and hatchets flew over their heads. Looking up again, they saw her sitting on a collapsed Jeff's stomach, crying.

"I'm huuuuuuuuuman!" she cried loudly. "I-I woke up, an-and my weapons were gone, and my eyes aren't p-purple, a-and my skin isn't pale, a-and- waaaahhh!"

Stepping slowly forward, E.J. slowly pulled off her swords, setting those and her daggers on the ground beside her and Jeff. He then slowly began to back away, not wanting to be tackled down by the crying girl either.

She paused in her crying, looking over at the weapons, sniffling, she picked them up, hugging hem to her chest. "M-my babies..."

Jeff looked up at her with a raised brow, asking, "What about me?" Her only reply was to stick her tongue out.

"So, looks like Violet is human too," Lucy muttered to E.J. "Great..." She rolled her eyes sarcastically. Jack just chuckled at her exasperation.

"W-wait..." Violet murmured, "You're all human too."

"You just noticed that?!" Jeff cried. "How stupid are you?!"

She glared at him, smacking him upside the head. "Don't call me stupid, moron!"

"They're both morons," Lucy muttered, causing them both to yell a loud 'hey!' at her. She just shrugged, not bothering to take it back.

"So... Can you get off of me now?" Jeff asked bluntly, still lying on his back int he leaves.

"You know you like it," she teased, standing up and moving away from him. He just glared at her, getting up too and brushing leaves off of his hoodie and pants.

"You missed one," Jack said, reaching out and grabbing a leaf from his hair. Jeff just growled in frustration, patting his head to be sure there were no more.

"Alright, girls," Lucy said, "let's get going." She started to walk again, before pausing to look over her shoulder and add, "Jeff, pick up those weapons, kay?"

He grunted in frustration, bending down to pick them all up again. Meanwhile, Violet skipped up to Lucy and asked to carry Sally's teddy bear. Lucy just shrugged, giving it to her without any problems. She trusted Violet enough to at least carry a stuffed animal. She started walking again, and Violet and E.J. both followed after her, Jeff trailing behind with his arms full of weapons. He really hated them.

* * *

"It's getting dark," Violet said, stating the obvious as she looked up at the sky that was darkening above them.

"Oh, no shit," Lucy commented sarcastically, prompting the other girl to glare at her.

"Now now, ladies," Jeff said. "Let's not go starting any cat fights, alright?" This time both girls turned their glares onto him and he immediately shrugged in defeat, not able to hold up his hands due to the cargo of weapons he was carrying.

"Maybe we should stop for the night," E.J. suggested quietly, speaking up for the first time in hours. The others turned to look at him before nodding in agreement.

"Yeah, good idea," Lucy agreed, looking around for somewhere they could lay down for the night. Walking over to a spot below a massive tree, she kicked away some sticks and rocks, clearing it up a bit. Then piling up some of the leaves, she turned to the others. "There! Five star suite right here!"

The others rolled their eyes, but said nothing, walking forward. Jeff set the pile of hatchets and knives down on the ground with a loud grunt of relief, standing straight and rolling the cricks from his shoulders. "Fuck you guys for making me carry all that," he muttered, although his complaint was completely ignored.

Lucy collapsed onto the pile of leaves, Violet jumping onto it as well and E.J. sitting down, laying down between the two girls in case another glaring contest broke out. Finally, Jeff laid down beside Violet, groaning at the aching pain in his spine. Sleeping on the ground probably wasn't going to do much to help that either.

"Night!" Violet chirped, curling up in the leaves with her swords hugged to her chest.

"Night..." Jeff replied, staring oddly at the weapons. Lucy just rolled over, looking away from them all while Jack pulled his mask from his face and set it aside, closing his eyes and sighing softly. It was quiet for a little while after that as they all tried to fall asleep.

Finally, Violet broke the silence by saying, "Meow."

"Go to fucking sleep!" Lucy shouted, sitting up and glaring at her before laying back down and curling away from them all. The others just stared at her a moment before going silent again, deciding they'd rather not be yelled at. Jeff almost interjected to say that that was his line, but a warning look from Jack told him better. After a bit, they all finally fell asleep.

* * *

"Do you think they're asleep?"

"Obviously, stupid."

"Hey, don't call me stupid!"

"Shh, I think they're waking up!"

BEN and Sally stared down at the four teens lying asleep in the leaf pile. Violet was curled up beside Jeff, clutching to his arm with her weapons laying discarded behind her. Lucy was curled into a ball on her own and E.J. was laying on his back between the two girls sound asleep.

"I don't think they're waking up," BEN commented.

"I saw Violet shifting a bit!" Sally replied defensively.

"That doesn't mean she's awake! She moves all the time in her sleep!" BEN yelled back.

"How would you know that, you creep?!"

"What- no! It's not like that!"

"Would you both shut the hell up?!" Jeff snapped, glaring at them. "I was trying to fucking sleep!"

Both children froze, staring at him with wide eyes upon realizing they'd been caught. "Sorry," they said in unison.

"Whatever," Jeff muttered, laying his head back int he leaves again before frowning, attempting to move his arm. It felt heavy. Looking down, he saw Violet hugging his arm like she had been the weapons before. Shaking his arm a bit, he found her grip to be vice and sighed heavily. He wasn't going anywhere until she woke up apparently. "Great..." he sighed.

"What's great?" Sally asked in confusion, but she was ignored by both boys, so she received no answer.

"Can you all be quiet? Seriously..." they heard a muffled voice from further down the leaf pile. Turning their heads, they saw a pair of electric blue eyes glaring at them from beneath a tangle of long, blond hair. Lucy was awake.

"Hiya, Lucy!" Sally chirped, waving a bit at her. BEN whacked her shoulder, giving her the signal to shut up, but she just replied by sticking out her tongue.

Sitting up a bit, Lucy groaned, running a hand through her messy hair. Patting the ground around her, she murmured, "Where's my mask?" A moment later it appeared beside her, and she looked over to see E.J. holding it out to her, still laying on his back with an arm thrown over his eyes. Accepting it, she slid it on, finding comfort in having it there despite there no longer being anything to hide. Those hideous burns on her face were gone now, so there wasn't much point. Then again, the same went for E.J. and he was still wearing his yesterday as well.

"Look who finally woke up," Jeff quipped, raising his head to look at a very grouchy Lucy and Jack.

"Look who finally got lucky," Lucy quipped back, earning a snort from EJ, a snicker from BEN, a rather confused look from Sally, and a very flustered Jeff.

"W-what?!" he stammered. "You're tripping! She just grabbed onto me, okay?!"

She just rolled her eyes, replying, "Suuuuure. Whatever yah say."

"It's not my fault she won't wake up!" he said defensively, raising his voice a bit.

Lucy sighed heavily, thinking a moment before saying, "Violet, Sally's here."

There was a loud, excited gasp as Violet shot to her feet, her curly brown hair flying in a mess around her. "Saaaaaaaally!" she squealed, running over to the small girl and hugging her tightly to her chest. "I missed you so much!"

The small brown haired girl hugged her back, smiling a bit. "I missed you too, big sis! BEN was being mean to me!"

"Hey, I was not!" the blonde complained, glaring at her with dark brown eyes and crossing his arms over his chest. She just stuck out her tongue at him again.

"Alright, kiddos," Lucy said, standing up with a small heave. "We found BEN and Sally, so that's good. Oh, and Sally, Violet's got your teddy so ask her for it. Judging by the collection of items we found, though, I assume we still are at least missing Toby, Hoodie, Masky, and Clockwork. I don't know about you, but wandering around this forest is getting old really fast, and I can't take anymore of Jeff's complaining or Violet's shrieking, so we're gonna have to figure out what the hell to do before anything else."

"I don't complain!" Jeff, well, complained.

"And I never shriek!" Violet added right before looking at Sally again and shrieking, grabbing her and hugging her tightly again.

Lucy sighed, quickly feeling a headache coming on. This was why she tried her best not to associate with those two. Jack, Sally, and BEN were all fine, but Violet and Jeff often annoyed the shit outta her.

"So, if nobody minds, why the FUCK are we human?!" BEN asked rather irritably, crossing his arms and narrowing his eyes angrily, foot tapping against the leaves as he stared them all down.

"BEN said a bad word!" Sally whined, pointing an accusing finger at him which only caused him to turn his angry glare onto her.

"Don't make me bite that finger off," he threatened.

"Children, calm down!" Lucy said a bit impatiently, trying to talk over their bickering.

"Sally, you're just so cuuuute!" Violet continued to squeal, hugging her tightly. "Cute, cute, cute!"

"Guys-" Lucy tried again, only to be cut off by Sally.

"BEN said he'd bite my finger off!"

"Because you were pointing it at me!"

"Violet, help me!"

"BEN, stop being mean to poor, innocent Sally."

"Poor, innocent Sally?! You're kidding me right?!"

"What's that supposed to mean?!"

"That you're not at all innocent! You're pure evil!"

"Am not!"

"Are so!"

"Guys!"

"Am not!"

"Are so!"

"Guys!"

"AM NOT!"

"ARE SO!"

"That's it!" Lucy shrieked, clutching a fist full of her blond hair. Turning to Jeff, she reached for his knife, saying, "Jeff, give me your knife!"

"What?! Why?!" he asked, drawing back so it was out of her reach.

"I need to stab somebody or I'll go insane. Just give me it!"

"No way! Besides, you're already bat-shit insane to begin with, you fucking wing nut!"

"Jeff, watch your mouth when talking to a lady!"

"This isn't your business, Violet, and she is not a fucking lady!"

"Excuse me?! Give me that damn knife, you fucking whore!"

"I said no way, you fucking bitch!"

"Give it!"

"No!"

Jeff and Lucy continued to fight over the knife, exchanging many inappropriate profanities in the process, and BEN and Sally continued their two word argument with Violet occasionally inputting on either side. Finally, it was E.J. who put an end to the nonsense.

"ALRIGHT, EVERYONE SHUT UP AND QUIT FIGHTING! THIS IS SERIOUS!" Everybody fell quiet, turning to look at the usually quiet brunette who stood staring at them all patiently, not a hint of emotion betrayed due to the ever present mask that completely covered his face. He waited a moment to be sure that they were paying full attention before nodding, saying, "Good, now that that's settled, we need to figure out what happened. There must be a reason for why we're all now human, and we're not going to find it by sitting here arguing with one another."

They all gave reluctant nods before backing away from one another, taking seats on the ground in a rough circle, deciding that he was right. It was about time they figured this all out.

* * *

 **A/N - Hey! So, this is a story I've been publishing on Wattpad for a little while now and I remembered my old account here on FanFiction and thought maybe I'd start posting it here as well. So let me know what you think and I'll try and post some more chapters soon. :3**

 **NOTE: I own no rights to the creepypastas (with the exception of Lucy).**


	2. Chapter 2

"Ugh, this still makes no sense!"

It had been an hour now since the six ex-creepypastas had sat down to try and figure out what had happened, and still they had no answers. They'd already gathered up all the information they knew, but it turned out that that wasn't much, and even what they had wasn't actually all that helpful.

"How the fuck are we gonna figure this out?!" Lucy asked irritably, clutching at her straight, blond hair and groaning in frustration.

"Can someone please calm her down?" Jeff asked, equally as irritated. "She's giving me a headache."

"Oh, you wanna headache?" Lucy replied threateningly, shooting him a sharp glare.

"Bring it on, goldilocks!" he replied tauntingly, giving her a glare as well, since he now had his eyelids back. He had to admit, it did make it much easier to show his frustration when he could narrow his eyes and didn't look like he was constantly smiling.

"Alright, break it up," E.J. said calmly, stepping between them and placing one hand on Jeff's chest and the other on Lucy's shoulder.

"Well, at least we got some information, right?" Violet said, shrugging her shoulders a bit. "I mean, we know that we were all in Slender Woods when this happened, and we know that there are still a couple other pastas we've yet to find who are likely to be human as well."

"Yeah, but we still don't know why we're human," Sally whined, clutching her teddy bear tightly to her chest.

BEN sighed, saying, "Guys, this is getting us nowhere. We need to actually figure out what the hell we're gonna do. Honestly, I don't even care how this happened as long as we can fix it."

E.J. nodded, agreeing. "Our main focus right now should be finding a way to change ourselves back or else we're in some deep trouble."

"Yeah," BEN added, nodding his head. "Besides, none of us exactly know how to behave as humans, so it might be a problem if we were stuck this way."

Lucy harrumphed, crossing her arms over her chest and looking away haughtily. "Speak for yourself. I actually used to be human."

"Yeah, and so did I," Jeff added, mimicking her pose and further irritating her.

"Same," Sally said quietly, raising her hand a little teensy bit.

"Me too!" Violet chirped before suddenly saddening a bit. "Although, I don't really remember it all too well..."

BEN stared at them all, clearly taken aback. "Wait, you were all human?! I mean, I knew Jeff was since he never shuts up about it, and Violet too, but Sally and Lucy?!"

"Yeah, so?!" Lucy asked, turning a vicious glare onto him. "Maybe I just don't like to talk about it, okay?!" Then with that, she stormed off, disappearing between the trees with a few profanities trailing in the air behind her.

"What's her deal?" Jeff asked irritably, raising a brow and looking over at the spot where she had stormed off from.

E.J. sighed, replying, "It's... a bit of a touchy subject with her."

Jeff looked startled, staring wide eyed at his blue-masked friend. "Wait, you already knew?! She actually told you?!"

He thought it over for a moment, trying to decide how to reply to that one. Yes, he knew. No, she hadn't had to tell him. Then that answer would require further information, though, and Lucy wouldn't really appreciate him telling anyone her story: especially Jeff.

"Yes, I already knew. Now come on, we should get going," he finally replied, walking off before Jeff had the chance to ask any more questions.

Watching E.J. just walk off, Jeff threw his arms into the air, clearly frustrated. "Why doesn't anyone tell me anything?!" he shouted angrily.

"Because you're a moron," Sally quipped, walking past him with her teddy still hugged tightly to her chest.

"H-hey!" he yelled, a bit surprised by the sudden comment. He growled, about to chase after her before Violet grabbed his hood, holding him back.

"No chasing little girls, Jeff. That's pedophilic," Violet hummed, releasing him again and walking on ahead, ignoring his rather loud and angry cursing behind her.

* * *

Lucy stomped through the woods, kicking up leaves in frustration and shouting random obscenities. Kicking at another small pile of leaves, she cursed loudly when her foot made contact with a hidden rock, bring her knee up and clutching at her foot in pain, hopping around a bit to keep her balance as she continued to curse up a storm.

"Hello?" a voice suddenly called, freezing her in her tracks. "Is someone there?"

Slowly setting her foot back on the ground, she started slowly towards the direction of the voice, eyes narrowed as she followed the sound.

"Hello?" the voice continued, getting louder and louder the closer she got. "I heard you yelling! I know you're there!"

Slowly creeping up, a specialty of hers, she peered cautiously around a tree, seeing a boy with short, curly brown hair and sideburns standing among the trees, walking around and clearly searching for her. It took her a moment to recognize him, not used to seeing him without his mask, but after a moment she realized exactly who it was.

"Masky!" she shouted, stepping out from around the tree and causing him to jump nearly three feet in the air.

Staring at her with wide eyes, he stammered, "L-Lucy?"

"In the human flesh," she replied, doing a mock curtesy. "Nice to see yah. We've been looking everywhere for you."

"We?" he questioned. "The others are with you? Who?"

She rubbed the back of her neck sheepishly, replying a bit slowly. "Well... I _was_ with the others. E.J., Violet, Jeff, Sally, and BEN. I kinda got pissed at Jeff, though, and stormed off, so I'm on my own right now."

He sighed, shaking his head. "Well, I guess one person is better than none."

"Exactly!" she chirped. "Oh, and they should have your mask. We found everyones' stuff stuck in a tree, so we've been carrying it around until we find everyone."

He raised a brow, a somewhat odd expression on his face. "You found it all in... a tree?"

"Yeah, it's a bit odd, but hey, at least it was convenient," she replied, shrugging her shoulders dismissively. He just sighed, deciding not to argue her logic.

"So, should we go find the others then?" he asked, knowing that they were probably just wasting time by sitting around there.

Lucy nodded, agreeing. "Yeah, sure, let's go!"

* * *

"Lucy sure has been gone a long time," Sally whimpered, clutching at her teddy bear.

"Don't worry, I'm sure she's fine," Violet replied, smiling a bit to reassure the young girl.

Jeff snorted, muttering, "Hope not." That quickly earned him a solid punch to the arm.

It was silent for awhile after that, the five of them walking along through the woods, Jeff still carrying all the extra weapons and Violet holding Masky's mask. No one spoke, and in the already eerie silence of the woods it felt deafening. Finally, it was BEN who broke the silence with the question they were all thinking, but yet no one wanted to ask. "What happens if we never change back?"

The silence dragged on, no one else daring to speak not because they didn't want to say something, but because they didn't know what it was they should say.

"I don't know," E.J. finally said, his voice even lower and quieter than usual. "I don't know."

* * *

"We're going the wrong way."

"No, I'm pretty sure it's this way."

"No, I'm pretty sure it's not."

"Well then, Ms. Know-it-all, what way do you think we should go?"

"I don't know, but I do know it's not that way."

Lucy and Masky stood in the center of a small clearing, Masky pacing around and trying to choose a direction while Lucy stood still, arms crossed over her chest and eyes rolled to the sky. He insisted that he knew exactly where it was they were going, but she wasn't entirely sure how that was possible when he didn't even know where it was they were going.

"Look, when we were traveling to find everyone, we were heading Northeast. When I stormed off, I went northwest. So if we head directly east, we should be able to at least pick up their trail."

He gave her an incredulous look, exclaiming, "What are they, animals?! They don't leave a trail!"

She gave him a sidelong look, replying, "They have Jeff with them. They leave a trail."

Masky just grunted in frustration again, running a hand through his curly hair in an apparent attempt to calm his nerves. Lucy just rolled her eyes again, sitting down with a sigh and resting her elbows on her knees, her chin finding a place in the palms of her hands. This was gonna take awhile.

* * *

Violet looked up, seeing the sky starting to grow increasingly dark. The stars weren't out yet, but it was only a matter of time before they were, and the light of day was quickly fading into the darkness of the night.

"Guys," she said, slowing down a bit as she spoke. "Maybe we should stop for the night. It's starting to get dark."

Jeff stopped as well, looking up at the sky over an armful of weapons. "It's not that dark. Besides, aren't we nocturnal or something? Why do we keep stopping at night?"

"Because," E.J. started, still walking with BEN and Sally trailing behind him, "humans don't have night vision, meaning that we can't see, and with that armful of hatchets and knives, it's probably not the best idea for you to be stumbling around blind."

Jeff growled a little, but didn't say anything, knowing all too well that Jack had the better argument. Besides, now that he thought about it, maybe he didn't really want to be walking around blind with all these weapons. Impaling himself didn't sound like much fun, thanks.

"But wait, we still haven't found Lucy yet!" Sally interjected, a slight whine to her voice. "What if she's lost?"

"I'm sure she's just fine, Sally. Lucy can take care of herself," Violet reassured her yet again, not wanting the young girl to start crying or anything.

"Yeah, no kidding. Calm down," BEN said, rolling his eyes.

"But what if she's hurt or alone?!" Sally cried, tears beginning to well in her eyes as she stopped, holding tight to her teddy bear. "She'll be all by herself out in the dark with no one to protect her!"

BEN opened his mouth to say something again, but E.J. held up a hand to stop him, leaving them all in silence. It remained quiet a moment before he finally spoke, saying, "We'll keep going for a little bit. Then we'll stop."

Jeff went to complain, but a sharp elbow in this side by Violet shut him up before he could speak. The five of them then continued to walk, Jeff a bit behind the rest due to his slightly hunched over posture and deadly load.

* * *

Lucy sighed, laying on her back on the ground. Masky was still pacing in circles around her, index finger and thumb holding his chin in a thoughtful gesture. They hadn't moved from that little clearing in hours.

"Masky, just give it up. You're not gonna figure out where they are by standing here. If we'd just started walking then we could've found them. Hell, I don't even care if we'd taken the wrong direction at this point," she groaned, clearly bored out of her mind.

"But what if we completely missed them by going the wrong way?!" he exclaimed, looking at her with slightly widened eyes.

"We _did_ miss them!" she cried, throwing her arms into the air in frustration before dropping them back to the leave-strewn ground again.

Masky sighed, sitting down beside her. "Alright, fine. We're lost. Happy?"

She turned her head to look at him, frowning. "No, of course I'm not freakin happy! Why would I be happy that we're lost?! That's such a stupid question!"

He sighed heavily, lying back as well as staring up at the darkening sky. "Well, I guess we're camping here for the night then, because it's starting to get pretty dark."

She sighed as well, grabbing a handful of leaves and throwing them up into the air, watching them flutter back down to land on their bodies. "Yep, guess so."

They fell silent after that, just laying there in the leaves and staring at the dark sky, a few scattered leaves in their hair and clothes. Totally silent. It kind of made Lucy regret never taking the time to get to know Masky. Now they had nothing to talk about.

* * *

"We're not going to find her!"

"Yes, we will!"

It was very dark out now, and the group was still pushing onwards, corralled by a very stubborn Sally and an agreeing E.J. Jeff was of course at the very limits of his patience right now, but no one wanted to really interject into the argument him and Sally we're having, so the rest just remained silent. It was better that way.

"We've been searching for _hours_! We're not going to find her!"

"I don't care, and yes we will!"

"Won't!"

"Will!"

"Guys," Violet finally interrupted, a tired look on her face, "Can you please stop arguing? I'm seriously about to kill one of you, and it won't be Sally."

Jeff glared at her, replying, "Well since you fawn over her, that doesn't shock me!"

"Aw, come on!" she cooed, grabbing Sally and hugging her tightly. "How can you say no to that face?"

"Easily," Jeff replied with a short, earning him a whap on the arm from Violet and a tongue stuck out at him from Sally.

"Can everybody please just shut up?" BEN groaned, looking like he was about to fall over with exhaustion, clearly extremely tired.

Pausing a moment, E.J. seemed to think something over before sighing heavily, turning back to look at everyone else who had by now stopped as well. "Alright, well stop for the night. It's late, and we're all very tired." Sally opened her mouth to complain, but he quickly cut her off, saying, "I know you're worried about Lucy, but I'm sure she's just fine. We can go find her the morning when we wake up, alright? Besides, by then the sun will be up and it will be much easier to search for her, okay?"

She gave a reluctant nod, obviously not satisfied with the idea, but accepting it nonetheless. "Yeah, okay..."

"Finally!" Jeff huffed, dropping the assortment of weapons into the ground and sitting down with a heavy, relieved sigh.

"I would've laughed so hard if you dropped one of those hatchets right on your foot. Just saying," Violet commented, eyeing the hatchets he had in fact dropped dangerously close to his own feet. "So hard."

"Whatever," he grumbled, laying down and spreading his arms out beside him. "I'm going to sleep."

"Hey, that's a first," BEN said, starting to kick together some leaves to lay on, "Jeff's telling himself to go to sleep rather than someone else." There were a few chuckles and a growl in response to that one.

"Come on, everyone, let's just sleep," E.J. said, making his own little bed of leaves before lying down, pulling off his mask and laying it beside him. Everyone else followed, throwing together their own little makeshift beds and laying down to sleep. This time, Violet didn't meow.

* * *

Masky and Lucy lay on the ground in the small clearing, still with leaves scattered about them. Lucy held her mask in on hand while Masky still wore his, refusing to take it off for the time being. It was completely silent, as it had been for the last hour or so, the two of them just laying there without saying a word.

Masky let out a soft sigh, staring up at the waving leaves of the trees above them. It was nearly pitch dark, but he could just make out the outline off the swaying trees in the darkness. It was relaxing, if boring, to watch them move about in the slight breeze. At least it passed the time. That was something.

It was silent for a few more minutes before Lucy finally couldn't take it anymore, screaming, "I CAN'T TAKE THIS ANYMORE! IF WE DON'T FIND THE OTHERS SOON, I'M GOING TO LOSE IT!"

* * *

 **A/N -** **Hey! I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Thanks for reading and I hope to see you next time. :)**

 **Love yah! 3**


	3. Chapter 3

"AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Lucy bolted up from where she'd been lying on the ground, blue eyes wide. Some girl was screaming her lungs out. Violet maybe?

Leaping to her feet, she looked around, tangled blond hair whipping around her. "What's going on?! Who's hurt?!" Looking behind her, she spotted the source of the screaming... Masky.

"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHH! There's a bug! Get it, get it, GET IT!" he screamed girlishly hopping away from a small bug on a nearby tree. Lucy was actually forced to cover her ears, his scream was so high-pitched. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!"

Grunting in irritation, she stepped forward, raising one foot and slamming it against the tree, effectively crushing the bug. Then looking back over at Masky, she raised a brow at him. "Really? A bug? Seriously? You were screaming like a girl because of a measly bug?"

He humphed, crossing his arms and looking away. "I did NOT scream like a girl."

She snorted, crossing her arms over her chest and smirking a bit. "Oh really? So you didn't just scream your lungs out because off an itty bitty bug?"

He frowned, glaring at her slightly before turning around and starting off into the woods. Lucy just shook her head in amusement, following after him without another word.

* * *

E.J. sighed heavily, a look of total exhaustion and distress hidden by his deep blue mask. Behind him Jeff, Violet, BEN, and Sally were all arguing loudly, as they had been for the last two hours. From the moment they'd all woken up that morning the four of them had been arguing nonstop. It just didn't end.

"You're such an annoying prick!" Violet screamed, glaring angrily at Jeff.

"And you're a whiny little brat!" he shouted back, equally as upset judging my his tone and expression.

"I hate you!" Sally shrieked at BEN, holding her teddy bear tight to her chest.

"Oh yeah, well I hate you!" BEN shouted back, giving her a small shove on shoulder and causing her to stumble back a pace before stepping forward again and shoving him twice as hard.

E.J. was beginning to lose his patience as he walked ahead of them, still hearing their obnoxious and completely useless arguments going on behind him. He wasn't even quite sure what had started the arguments in the first place, but he also didn't honestly care. He just wanted them to end so that he could maybe have a moment or two of peace and quiet. Key word: maybe.

"You know what, that's it! You are so annoying, and obnoxious, and self-centered, and narcissistic, and I hate you!" Violet screamed, stomping her foot on the ground and clenching her fists as she glared maliciously at Jeff, anger burning in her blue eyes.

It was silent for a few moments as everyone just stared at her, but hen Jeff finally spoke up, his voice low and calm as a small smirk slowly made its way across his face and he crossed his arms smugly over his chest. "Wow. It's the pot calling the kettle black again."

E.J., BEN, and Sally all visibly winced. Not a good choice of words on his part. Violet, meanwhile, looked like a dam about to burst, her tan face turning a deep shade of red as her eyes widened before narrowing again, anger pulsing through her gaze.

Let's just say, Jeff had to be carried for the next hour of the walk.

* * *

"I still can't believe that you were so freaked out by a little bitty bug! Hahaha!"

"Would you just drop it already?"

"Nope!"

Masky sighed, crossing his arms and rolling his eyes in exasperation. Seriously, one more moment with this crazy blonde and he'd go insane again. She was really getting on his nerves with the whole bug thing. So he was scared of a bug, so what? It wasn't that funny.

"Anyways," he said, hoping to change to subject, "we still need to find the others. It's been a whole day now. They have to be around here somewhere."

Lucy nodded in agreement, finally calming down from her laughing. "Yeah, right. We need to get a move on if we wanna find them today."

Finally having come to an agreement, they chose a random direction and set off, ears and eyes trained in on finding their fellow creepypastas.

* * *

It was silent as the pastas walked on through the woods, no one daring to speak after Violet's little rage fit. Jeff couldn't talk, so it seemed like an excellent idea that they didn't either.

Pausing a moment, BEN narrowed his eyes, frowning as he tried to block out the sounds of the forest and train in on one.

Noticing that the small blond boy had stopped, everyone else stopped as well, turning to look at him. He seemed focused on something, but they weren't quite sure what, which confused them to no end. What was he doing?

"BEN?" Sally asked curiously, tilting her head a bit in question.

"Shhh!" he immediately shushed her, holding a single finger to his lips and continuing to listen. "Do you hear that?"

Everyone else went completely silent, listening as well to try and hear whatever it was that he seemed to think he was hearing. After awhile, Violet opened her mouth, starting to speak. "I don't get it. What are we listening fo-"

"SHHH!" BEN shushed her again, shooting her a brief glare before going back to listening. "Just listen!"

It was silent for another minute or so before E.J. finally spoke up, saying a bitter lowly, "There are voices."

BEN nodded, hearing the same thing, and after a bit of straining, the girls both agreed as well, hearing it now that it had been pointed out to them. It sounded like there were two voices speaking rather loudly not all too far away from them. E.J. gave everyone a small wave, signaling for them to quietly move forward. Leaving Jeff lying on the ground where he was, they all set off, moving carefully and quietly through the woods and towards the voices. As they got closer they started to sound more familiar, and BEN nearly groaned when he recognized an all too familiar skipping in one of their voices.

"Are you sure this is-is the r-right wa-ay, Clocky?" the first voice asked, obviously male by the sounds of it.

"I'm positive," the second voice replied, this one definitely female.

"B-but we've been in these wo-ods for two day-ays now," the first voice said, a slight whining lacing his words with complaint.

"Don't worry, we'll get out of here," the second voice said reassuringly, obviously hoping to calm the first voice down a bit.

"Did it have to be them?" BEN groaned quietly, more speaking to himself than anyone else.

Replying to BEN's rhetorical mumbling, Violet said, "We're trying to find all the pastas we can, remember? Besides, Toby's like my bro. We can't just leave him behind."

BEN sighed but said nothing else, just scowling a little. Violet was right. They needed to find all the pastas they could, and that included Toby and Clockwork, even if Toby was a little annoying. He'd just have to put up with it.

Jumping to her feet, Violet ran out into the clearing, tackling down Toby with a loud shriek of excitement. Back in the bushes, all three remaining pastas face palmed, shaking their heads at her overwhelming enthusiasm.

"Toby, Toby, Toby! I missed you so much!" Violet squealed, hugging the life out of him as he lay on his back in the leaves, eyes wide in surprise. Looking up, Violet grinned at Clockwork, waving at her. "Hi, Clocky! Great to see you!"

Clockwork gave her a small, awkward smile, waving back a little. "Uh, hi, Violet..."

Leaping to her feet again, Violet brushed herself off, stepping back and allowing Clockwork to help Toby back up to his feet. While all this went on E.J., BEN, and Sally all left the bushes, stepping into the clearing with everyone else. Clockwork gave them all a smile and a wave, and they all smiled and waved back. Well, BEN and Sally did. E.J. was still wearing his mask, so they couldn't really tell if he was smiling or not.

"It's so nice to see you all!" Clockwork said, smiling sweetly. She looked like a normal girl now, without the clock in her eye or scars of any sort. Toby was the same with no torn mouth or anything. He still had his mask with him, but it hung around his neck now, leaving his mouth open and voice unhindered.

"H-hey, guys!" he said, ticking his neck a little and grinning widely at them. Yup, nothing different there.

"We've got all your weapons back with Jeff if you wanna go get them," Violet chirped, smiling brightly. "We found them all stuck in a tree!"

Clockwork rose a brow, giving her a weird look when she mentioned the tree. Toby, on the other hand, didn't seem to find a single thing weird about that sentence as he just continued to bounce a little in place, grinning widely at them.

"Uh, yeah," Clockwork said, nodding a bit. "Sure, that sounds like a great idea."

Violet nodded, grinning and skipping off to go back to where they had left Jeff and the weapons. Everyone else followed behind her, Toby with a smiling expression similar to Violet's as he walked along with a bright smile spread across his face which he was now happy to be able to show.

Reaching the clearing, Violet paused, Toby crashing into her back and BEN, Sally, Clockwork, and E.J. stopping just in time not to. All peering over her shoulder, they frinned, wondering what could possibly be wrong.

"V-Violet...?" Toby said a bit slowly, giving her a weird look.

Slowly opening her mouth, Violet pointed at the clearing full of weapons and masks, asking a bit shakily, "WHERE'S JEFF?!"

* * *

"Uggghh," Jeff groaned, rolling his head a bit and slowly opening his eyes. His head was killing him, and it took him a moment to even remember why. Oh yeah, Violet had beat him up. Groaning again, this time in slight embarrassment at being knocked out by a girl, he went to move a hand up to his face to rub his eyes. His hand didn't move, however, due to the restraint of a rope tied tightly around his arms and body.

Looking down, Jeff was honestly surprised to see a rope tied around him, effectively keeping him from moving about. How the heck did that happen?

"The fuck?" he muttered, wriggling about in an attempt to shake them loose. It didn't work, of course, and he swore again in frustration, glaring at the offending rope. Where in the world was his knife? That would be very useful right about now.

"Give it up, Jeff. They're not going to loosen any. I tied them too tight," a voice, distinctly feminine, said from just in front of him. Pausing in his wriggling about, Jeff looked up, meeting the white masked face of a somewhat familiar girl. Growling a bit, he glared at her, suddenly much more angry then before.

"Seriously, Jane?! You're a human too?! And you kidnapped me?! The fuck?!"

She glared at him, placing her hands on her hips. Long brown hair fell down her back and her skin was back to its original tone. She still wore her usual black dress, though, of course as well as her white and black mask. He could also clearly see the glinting steel of her knife in one of her hands, held casually, but obviously still ready to stab him were he to move too suddenly for her liking.

Jane snorted, still glaring at him from behind the mask, although he couldn't really tell. The mask just sort of made it look like she was always glaring at him, which was actually probably pretty true really. Snorting, she opened her mouth, speaking in a very distasteful tone. "Yeah, I'm human, but that doesn't mean I still don't want to kill you. You're a menace. Someone needs to wipe you out, human or not."

Groaning again, he hung his head, brown hair falling into his face. Man, he was doomed.

* * *

"We're lost again."

"We're not lost, we're just not sure where we are."

"That's called being lost!"

Masky and Lucy had been walking for the past two hours through the woods, and still hadn't found any sign of other life. They hadn't even found any landmarks other than the occasional boulder or abnormally large tree.

"How big are these freakin woods? I mean, honestly, this is our third day wandering through these woods. How freaking massive are they?" Lucy exclaimed, throwing her arms into the air for emphasis. Masky had to agree that she did have a point. These woods were quite large for them to have been lost for three days now. It was pretty crazy actually.

Lucy sighed, hanging her head and letting her arms hang loosely in front of her, looking like she'd just completely had her soul crushed. "I give up... We're gonna die here, and it's going to be an awful death because the only company I have is you and I don't even like you..." She groaned sadly.

Masky shot her a brief glare, rolling his eyes. "I'll pretend like you didn't just insult me and inform you that we won't be dying anytime soon. We just need to find some food and water."

As if on cue, both their stomachs rumbled rather loudly, causing them to both look down at their midsection before looking at each other again.

Lucy gave him a blank look, stating simply, "We're fucked."

* * *

"You're a fucking bitch, you know that?" Jeff cursed, glaring up at Jane as he continued to struggle with the ropes binding him, clearly frustrated that he couldn't seem to loosen them any.

"Language, Jeff," she cooed, obviously pleased with the current situation. "It's rude to curse at a lady."

Glaring up at her, he spat, causing her to scowl down at him from behind her mask. She quickly flipped him off before turning, starting to walk away. Frowning, he opened his mouth, quickly calling after her. "Hey, where yah going?! You can't leave me here!"

"Don't worry," she called back, not even bothering to turn around, "I'm sure the wolves will be sure that you have a quick, very painful death!"

He scowled, cursing her out rather loudly as she walked away. He seriously hated her just so badly. "Seriously," he mumbled, trying to wriggle out of the ropes again, "why did I ever make her a pasta? Who thought that would be a bright idea?"

Sighing, he gave up, not able to get free. She tied those ropes way too tight. They actually hurt, especially since her kept moving around, pressing them into his flesh even harder. Yep, he was a genius. It was official.

Groaning, not liking what he was about to do, he lifted his chin, closing his eyes and yelling at the top of his lungs, "HELP! HELP ME!"

* * *

Masky paused, frowning and seemingly staring off in a random direction, not saying anything. This, of course, caught Lucy's attention, making her stop as well.

"What's up?" she asked, frowning as she saw the intent look on his face. It looked like he was maybe listening for something.

"Do you hear that?" he asked, confirming her theory that he was indeed listening to something. Standing still, she listened as well, trying to hear whatever it was he was so intent on listening to. Faintly hearing something as well, a voice maybe, she nodded.

"Yeah, I hear it too," she said, looking over at him. "It sounds like maybe a voice?"

He nodded in agreement, starting to walk again, this time in the direction of the sound. "Yeah, that's what I thought too. Someone must be nearby."

"Well, let's go find them then!" Lucy chirped, staring to jog off in that direction, forcing Masky to take up his speed a little as well. Soon, they were both jogging through the forest in the direction of this supposed voice, curious and a bit excited to see what they might find.

Swerving around a fairly large tree, Lucy moved on through the forest, Masky only a few feet behind her. Clearing a fallen tree and a couple of rocks, she swerved throughout the trees, leaping over whatever she couldn't go around. Coming to a little stream, she paused a moment, skidding to a halt so that she didn't fall in. Looking around, she spotted a thinner part of the stream, running over and backing up a bit before running at it, thrusting up and jumping straight across, stumbling onto the other side and taking off in a run again, hearing Masky land behind her only a few seconds later, him taking off as well. By now the voice was much louder, and they could now tell what it was saying, making them even more anxious to go check it out.

Running around a last tree, Lucy froze, skidding to a halt when she saw who sat on the ground only a few feet away. Turning around, she started back, grabbing Masky by the arm and tugging him along, much to his surprise. An angry shout sounded from the clearing behind them, and Lucy growled in irritation.

"Hey, get back here! Lucy, you bitch, get back here and untie me!" Jeff yelled angrily, upset that she'd left him just sitting there. He struggled against the ropes again, wanting very much to break free to that he could smack her upside the head for bailing.

"Lucy, is that Jeff back there?" Masky asked, obviously already knowing the answer by the blank look on his face.

She sighed, rolling her eyes a bit, and nodded, replying, "Yes, it is. Now come one, let's go. We've still got to find everyone else."

Masky shook his head, tugging his arm from her grasp. "No, we've got to go back for him. He may be annoying, but we can't just leave him on his own back there.

She gave him a look, replying, "Why not? Jeff's a big boy."

He just rolled his eyes, turning around and heading back, walking around the tree and into sight, much to Jeff's obvious relief.

"Masky! Thank god!" he sighed, beyond relieved. "I thought it was only Lucy, and if that were the case then I'd be fucked."

Lucy snorted, rolling her eyes as she came back over as well, crossing her arms over her chest. "Just untie him so we can go. The sooner we get back to the others the sooner I can shove him off on someone else."

Jeff opened his mouth to reply, but Masky quickly clapped a hand over his mouth, shaking his head no. She was already in a pissy mood, and he really didn't want to deal with her being even angrier were Jeff to say something offensive, which he most certainly would.

"Just stay quiet, and let me untie you, or so help me I'll strangle you with these ropes and leave your body out for the wolves," he hissed, taking his hand from his mouth and starting to work at the knot binding the ropes. Jeff just sat still, perfectly quiet for once. He'd never really noticed this before, but Masky was actually quite scary when he wanted to be.

* * *

"Where the hell could he have gone?" Violet asked incredulously, quite miffed by Jeff's sudden disappearance.

"Maybe he ran away?" Sally suggested, shrugging her shoulders up to show it was simply a guess. E.J. shrugged as well, not really sure where the brown haired, blue eyed boy had run off to. He'd been unconscious last they saw him, so where he could have possibly disappeared off to in that short time was beyond him.

BEN walked forward, crouching beside the small pile of weapons and masks and gently poking one, saying, "At least he left the stuff." Looking up, he saw everyone glaring at him a bit and shrugged, asking, "What?" They just all rolled their eyes, turning their attention away from him and back to the matter at hand.

"So now we have to find Jeff and Lucy," Violet sighed, feeling the beginnings of a headache coming on. Seriously, it seemed like they were just losing people left and right at this point. Although, on the bright side, they did manage to find Toby and Clockwork.

"Wait," Clockwork suddenly spoke up, looking a little surprised, "Lucy was with you guys?! And you lost her too?!"

E.J. sighed, hanging his head a bit. They were seriously bad at keeping track of their friends apparently. This was why they needed Smile Dog. Then he could just sniff out the missing people for them. That would be so much easier than this ridiculous game of goose.

"Well, I guess that we better get going if we wanna find them," he said, straightening up again and taking back charge. "Come on, let's go." With that, Toby and Clockwork grabbed their weapons, E.J. and Violet grabbing the remaining knife and mask before they all set off, heading for who knows where as they searched for their missing friends.

* * *

 **A/N - Hiii! Big thanks for reading the third chapter of Only Human. I really hope you liked it! And don't forget to drop a review and let me know what you think. ;)**

 **MAJOR thanks, by the way, to Twinkles43534 for being the first person to follow and favorite this story! You are super awesome and jsut for that this chapter is dedicated to you. :) Seriosuly, thanks.**


	4. Chapter 4

"Oh my god, shut up, shut up, SHUT UP!"

Lucy clapped her hands over her ears, yelling loudly at Jeff to stop talking. He hadn't stopped rambling and complaining for nearly an hour now, and it was frankly ticking her off. She hadn't wanted for him to come along in the first place, so he was really only further irritating her now by not shutting his trap. Masky, meanwhile, had been ignoring them both, deciding he'd just rather not get involved in the whole thing.

"Why don't you shut up?!" Jeff snapped, glaring at her. "You're the one yelling!"

"I said, shut up!" she yelled again, still covering her ears in a vain attempt to block him out. He just glared at her again, sticking his tongue out.

Groaning, Masky threw his head back a bit, muttering, "I hope we find them soon, or I'm going to end up killing the both of them." At that moment, both pastas turned their attention onto him, staring at him with unblinking eyes.

"Pft, yeah right," Lucy snorted.

"We'd kill you before you even got the chance to try," Jeff added, smirking a bit and shaking his head.

Rolling his eyes at their childishness, Masky walked ahead, shoving his hands into his pockets. He seriously hoped they found the others soon. He wasn't sure he could stand spending another moment with those two bickering ninnies.

* * *

"H-hey, Violet. Hey, Violet. Hey, Violet. H-hey, Violet. Hey, Violet. Hey, Violet. Hey, Violet. H-hey, Violet."

Violet sighed, rolling her eyes and asking, "What is it, Toby?"

He shrugged, grinning widely and replying, "Nothing. I j-just wanted to see how long I could d-do it before you got annoyed and re-replied."

She growled, turning two burning blue eyes onto him. "Rogers, I swear..."

He just grinned again, skipping ahead to catch up to Clockwork. Violet brought her hands up, seemingly strangling the air in front of her and causing BEN to chuckle from where he walked beside her. She glared at him, though, and he immediately shut up, raising two hands in surrender. She just rolled her eyes again, sighing and dropping her arms.

"Hey, E.J.," Sally said, walking up to the blue masked man walking at the head of the group, "how much further do we have to go? I'm bored, and I don't want to walk through this stupid forest anymore."

He took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. "I'm not sure, Sally. It could be a few minutes, or another few days. I'm not sure. These are some really deep woods, and we have no way of knowing which way will bring us out the quickest."

She sighed heavily, puffing out her cheeks and pouting. "Okay..."

Shaking his head, E.J. stopped a moment, turning to the little girl and bending down. Lifting her up onto his shoulders, he stood up again, bouncing her a little to make sure she was steady before starting off again. Sally's pout had now vanished, replaced instead with a wide smile as she held onto the top of his hooded head, laughing in joy. Although nobody could see it due to the ever present mask, a small smile crossed Jack's lips at the sound of the young girl's laughter, glad that she was in a better mood.

"I h-hope we can find a way outta here soon, b-because I'm hungry," Toby said, a small whine to his voice as he spoke. Clockwork nodded in agreement, looking down at her own empty stomach.

"I agree," Violet spoke up, placing her hands on top of her stomach. "I'm starved. We haven't had a single thing to eat, and we've been here for three days now. Anymore and I'm gonna pass out."

Sally nodded, leaning her arms and head against Jack's hood. "Yeah, I'm starting get kind of dizzy, and my tummy keeps rumbling."

BEN snorted, shaking his head. "Why is it that you guys are so caught up on food? I've never once eaten, and I'm perfectly fine!"

E.J. turned his head a bit to look at BEN, careful not to disturb the resting Sally, and said with a bit of concern, "BEN, you're human now. Humans need food, and that includes you. If you don't eat, then you will die."

BEN looked a bit surprised and frightened at once, straightening up immediately. "Wait, are you serious?! I'll actually DIE if I don't eat?!"

"Yep, sure will!" Violet chirped from beside him, her bright and cheerful attitude only seeming to put him further into his despair.

BEN sighed heavily, hanging his head in front of him. "This sucks..."

Violet sighed a little, placing a hand on his shoulder and giving a fake sniffle. "I know your pain, man. I know your pain."

Looking up at her, he narrowed his eyes, replying, "No you don't."

Removing her hand from his shoulder, Violet grinned, stating, "I know!" before skipping off, leaving BEN standing behind with a rather incredulous look on his face. She was so confusing.

* * *

"What if you climbed up a tree and looked around? Maybe you could spot someone."

"What if you climbed up a tree and looked around?"

"What if you weren't a smartass?"

"What if you weren't a bitch?"

"I'll climb the tree!"

Masky sighed, walking over to a nearby tree and grabbing the lowest limb, hefting himself up and starting to climb the branches. Lucy and Jeff just couldn't stop fighting for even a moment. Seriously, it was so irritating.

Climbing up into the higher branches, he stopped, standing on a semi-stable limb and holding onto the trunk for support. Shielding his eyes with his hand, he looked around, trying to see if he could spot any of the others. Pursing his lips, he swept his gaze through the trees, trying to spot anything out of place. It was difficult with all those leaves in the way. It was early autumn, so while many leaves had already fallen, many were still on the trees as well. Some were even still green, so the visual wasn't the best.

"Do you see anything?!" Lucy called up, cupping her hands around her mouth to amplify her voice.

"I think if he saw anything then he would tell us," Jeff said, turning to look at her.

Glaring at him, she elbowed him in the side, causing him to double over in pain. "I know that, I was just asking, jackass."

Sighing again, Masky turned his attention away from them, looking around again. He was about to call out that he didn't see anything and was coming back down when something caught his attention from the corner of his eye. Turning his gaze in that direction, he narrowed his eyes a bit, trying to focus in on whatever it was he saw. It took a moment, but when he realized what it was his heart leapt for joy. It was the others. He could see a light pink dress, obviously Sally's, standing out among the brown and orange of the forest. An excited grin spreading across his face, he yelled, "Guys, I see them! They're heading northeast, that way!" He pointed in the direction the other group was headed in, looking down at his two friends. They looked a bit surprised at first, but then happy grins spread across their faces when they realized that they were saved.

"Well, let's go meet them!" Lucy called excitedly, starting off in that direction at a jog, not bothering to wait for the two boys. Masky, meanwhile, climbed quickly back down the tree, dropping to the ground and starting after her, Jeff right beside him.

Moving at a good pace, the three pastas jogged through the forest, avoiding a few stumps and fallen trees as they headed for where they were now sure the rest of their friends were located. As long as they moved quickly and headed in the right direction, it'd only be a matter of minutes before they reached them. It turned out that they weren't so far from each other after all.

* * *

Sally groaned dramatically, leaning heavily against Jack's head and closing her eyes. "I'm so hungry!" she whined, pouting out her lips in complaint. Jack glanced up at her from under his mask, not seeing much other than a few strands of her curly brown hair. Sighing a bit, he readjusted her a little, making sure she didn't slip from his shoulders.

"Stop whining you baby," BEN scowled, rolling his eyes in exasperation at her. She glared, but otherwise said nothing, too tired to even argue.

"BEN, be nice," Violet said, a hint of exhaustion in her voice. It had been a long three days, and she was exhausted. The lack of food didn't really help either.

"H-hey, does anybody he-hear that?" Toby suddenly spoke up from the back of the group, stopping a moment and tilting his head, a coup fused look on his face. Everyone else stopped as well, turning to look at him with frowns and furrowed brows.

"Hear what?" BEN asked, a look of confusion crossing his own face. "I don't hear anything."

"Shh, listen!" Toby hissed, holding a finger to his lips in order to hush the younger boy. BEN glared at him, not liking the childish treatment very much, but silencing anyhow, listening for whatever it was Toby kept hearing.

They all remained silent a moment, straining their ears to hear this mysterious sound. At first, no one was quite getting it, but after a moment or two Violet finally caught it, understanding what it was Toby was hearing.

"It sounds like someone's coming," she said, lowering her voice a bit to just above a whisper.

E.J. nodded, hearing it now that she had pointed it out to him. There was a rather distinct sound of leaves rustling and crunching beneath quickly moving feet only a few yards to their left. Someone was approaching, and they were coming fast.

Carefully setting Sally down on the ground, E.J. pulled his scalpel from his pocket, bracing himself for a fight. Violet, Clockwork, and Toby struck similar poses with Violet holding her daggers, Clockwork with her knife, and Toby with his hatchets. BEN just went over to stand beside Sally, neither one of them having any weapons to defend themselves with.

It was silent for a few moments with the exception of the approaching footsteps, everyone seeming to hold their breathe in anticipation. The footsteps grew closer and closer, louder and louder. Tensions were high as their muscles stiffened, ready to leap at any attacker that were to appear from those woods. In their heads they counted down the seconds, growing more antsy each second that passed. 4...3...2...1...

"We made it!" Lucy cheered, bursting from the trees with her messy blond hair flying around her and arms thrown into the air, a wide grin on her face. "We made it, fuckers! Yeah!"

They all froze a moment, surprised, before relaxing their shoulders, deep breathes being released from their lungs as they sighed heavily. She had scared them senseless and didn't even have any idea.

Masky and Jeff broke from the trees a moment later, joining them all, and they all came together into one group at last. After the three greeted Toby and Clockwork, not having seen them yet since awakening in the forest, they all stood together in a group, glad to be united as one at last. Masky got his mask from Violet, pulling it on, and thanked her for holding it. She replied that it wasn't a problem before turning to Jeff and socking him in the arm, causing him to yelp and reel away from her.

"Ow! What the hell was that for?!" he snapped, rubbing his arm and glaring at her harshly.

"That was for disappearing on us earlier!" she replied, glaring right back.

"It's not my fault!" he argued, narrowing his eyes angrily and still rubbing his arm. "I was kidnapped and tied up! It's not like I exactly chose to be separated!"

Violet scoffed, replying, "Nobody cares that you were kidnapped, Jeff!"

"What the fuck?!" he yelled incredulously. "Jeez, I'm sure feeling the love here!"

Stepping in before it could get too bad and Violet could knock Jeff out again, E.J. spoke up, saying, "Actually, Jeff, I'd rather like to hear that little kidnapping story of yours. That might be kind of important."

Jeff nodded, launching into the story, and everyone else stayed quiet as they listened. They were all quite surprised to learn that Jane was there in the woods as well, and also that she'd kidnapped Jeff only to leave him. It didn't seem very much like her, especially considering that she'd been armed with her knife whereas he had nothing.

"So, she just let you go?!" Lucy asked, clearly surprised.

Jeff shook his head, replying, "No, not quite. She did leave me tied up, and really tight too, so if some wild animal came along and decided to maul me then they wouldn't have had much of a problem. She didn't try killing me herself, though, which is kind of weird. And by leaving me sitting there alone, that also risked the possibility of someone coming along and rescuing me, like Lucy and Masky did."

There was a chorus of nods from everyone else, seeing the thought process behind that. Parts of it made sense, but the entire plan in all made very little. It also didn't sound much like a usual Jane tactic, which was something else that was a bit out of place. It was all very weird.

"Enough about Jane," Violet spoke up, a somewhat anxious and pained look on her face. "We need to eat, and we need to eat now."

Lucy nodded, clearly on board with the idea. "Yeah, I agree. Let's get out of these freakin woods."

"What about the oth-others though?" Toby asked, ticking a bit midway through his sentence and tilting his head a bit in curiosity.

"Yes, are we just going to leave them here? Aren't we still looking for people?" Clockwork added, nodding in agreement.

"We know we're still missing Hoodie," E.J. said, "but we can't risk staying out here any longer. It's been three days without food or water and very little rest. It's not good for us, and it's certainly not good for Sally." On cue they all turned to look at the small, eight year old girl who was now sitting on the ground half asleep, looking utterly exhausted and pained. BEN himself was looking a little pale sitting cross-legged beside her. He was technically now only about twelve years old, so his body couldn't really handle the lack of energy either.

Masky nodded, still staring at the two weakened children. "Yeah, we should get out of here."

Having come to a decision, E.J. picked up Sally, setting her on his shoulders again and instructing her to wrap her arms around his neck, which she did so very slowly and with half-lidded eyes. Masky, meanwhile, picked up BEN, draping the half-asleep boy carefully over one shoulder and placing one hand on his back and the other on his legs to be sure that he didn't slip or fall at all. Then, with Masky now carrying Hoodie's knife, they all set off, determined now on finding a way to exit the deep woods. Even if they had to walk through the night, they would find a way to leave.

* * *

 **A/N - I forgot to update last night. Whoops... Okay, well here yah go. Another chapter. I plan on trying to post a chapter every day until I get caught up to where I am on Wattpad (I have sixteen chapters posted there...) and then the updates will be less frequent, but for the next two weeks or so it'll be daily updates. :)**

 **Thanks again for reading and don't forget to leave a review and let me know what you think. I'd love to hear from you! Bye!**


	5. Chapter 5

"Are we there yet?" Sally groaned, resting her head atop E.J.'s as he was still carrying her on his shoulders.

"Not yet," Clockwork replied calmly, a soft tone to her voice as she spoke to the young girl.

"Are we there yet?" BEN asked again, his voice slightly shaken considering that Masky still had him thrown over his shoulder, facing the ground.

"Not yet," Violet replied, her voice still laced with a slight chipperness despite her obvious exhaustion.

"Are we there yet?" Jeff grumbled, throwing his head back in exasperation.

Glaring at the brown haired boy, Lucy smacked him upside the head, snapping, "No! We're not freaking there yet!"

"Ow..." he muttered, rubbing the side of his head where she'd smacked him. She just raised a threatening hand again, promising to hit him were he to continue making any sort of noise with his mouth.

Sighing, E.J. rolled his eyes, ignoring them all. They were such pains...

"Are-are we there yet?" Toby asked, a small grin on his face.

Everyone glared at him, shouting, "TOBY! WE'RE NOT THERE YET!"

* * *

Lucy sighed, running a hand through her tangled and dirty blond locks. They were all dirty from spending two nights in the woods, and a couple of them had leaves stuck into their hair or clothes. Speaking of leaves... she scowled, feeling a waxy leaflet in her hair. Tugging it out, she glared at the offending piece of nature, flicking it onto the ground. She needed a shower so badly, it wasn't even cool. Normally, she wasn't too picky on her appearance - after all, she was used to coming home covered in blood and going straight to the couch to watch tv with the boys - but all this dirt and leaves was starting to become rather uncomfortable, and she didn't like it.

"Are we there now?" Sally moaned, now completely slumped over E.J.'s head and forcing him to push one of her arms away from his face so that he could see where he was going.

"No, for the last freaking time, we are not there yet," Jeff replied snappishly, arms crossed over his chest as he glared at the space ahead of him.

Lucy, who still walked beside him, glared at him, reaching out and smacking him upside the head again. "Be nice to Sally, you jerk! Besides, you asked the exact same thing earlier!"

"Yeah, but I got hit for it!" he replied, rubbing his head. "How come she gets special treatment?"

"Um, because she's eight?" Toby suggested, only shrugging in reply to the glare Jeff shot him.

Violet sighed, shaking her head. This group never stopped fighting. Never. There was always some argument going on amongst them.

"Hey, what's that?" Clockwork suddenly spoke up, tilting her body to the side a bit in order to look around the arguing Jeff and Lucy.

"What's what?" Lucy asked, snapped from the argument by her sudden question. Looking back at the brown haired girl, she looked ahead again, staring in the same direction as Clockwork. Her eyes widened a bit when she saw what it was the other girl had spotted.

"There's a gap in the trees!" Violet cried excitedly, beginning to bounce up and down a bit, a wide grin breaking across her face.

Toby grinned, running straight ahead of them, clearing a few fallen trees and scrambling over a small boulder to get to the supposed gap. Standing directly in it, he shaded his eyes from the sun, peering out. His grin widened, and he turned to look at the other, cupping one hand to his mouth and waving the other in the air above his head. "Guys, it's a town! There's a town here!"

Smiles broke out across everyone's faces, and next thing they knew they were all running for the gap, excitement and adrenaline giving them the rush of energy they needed to reach it. Skidding to a halt, they all looked out, smiles widening at the sight before them. There was a town, not very large but not too drastically small either, just perhaps another mile away. If they were quick, then they could reach it within the next hour, and there they would find food, water, comfort, and anything else they might need. That, though, was when a thought occurred to Masky.

"Guys, we're humans now, which means that we need to abide by human rules. Even if we go down there, then what? We have no money and no ID." Well, he had an ID and a bit of money, but none of that money was on him, nor was his ID. He'd have to get his ID reprinted and draw some money from his bank account or something. That took care of one person, but what about the rest of them?

Lucy bit her lip, thinking for a moment. "Well, as log as we don't drive or anything then we can live without the IDs, we just have to be careful. As for money... Well, I still have access to my family's bank account, but since they still believe me to be a missing person, I don't think accessing it would be a great idea."

"Same," Jeff added, nodding in agreement.

They all went silent a moment, just thinking of what to do, before BEN finally spoke up. "Why don't we just fucking steal some cash?"

They all turned to look at the young boy laying slumped over Masky's shoulder. He looked back at them with tired eyes, heavy black bags lining his lids and making him appear even more tired than he probably was. They all remained silent, just staring at him, not sure exactly what to reply to that. Finally, Jeff spoke up, shrugging his shoulders and saying, "I'm all for it."

Rolling her eyes, Lucy muttered, "Of course you are."

Clockwork bit at her lip, a little uncertain. "I'm not sure if that's a good idea. We're killers, not robbers."

"Don't worry," Masky said, carefully handing BEN over to Toby who almost immediately collapsed under the weight. "Leave it to me." With that, he set off towards the town, scrambling down the big hill that sloped down from the woods towards it and disappearing out of sight.

"What is this kid eating?" Toby groaned, yelping as his knees gave out and he fell over, still holding the half-asleep BEN in his arms.

Violet leaned over, looking down at him and announcing, "He passed out. I think he hit his head."

Sighing, Lucy stepped forward, saying, "Here, give me BEN."

* * *

It was probably five hours later when Masky finally returned, finding them all sitting around on the ground on the edge off the woods. E.J. and Lucy sat with their backs against trees, BEN asleep with his head in Lucy's lap as she calmly pet his head and Sally curled up in E.J.'s lap, asleep as well. Toby was lying passed out on the ground (he hadn't moved since hitting his head) and Clockwork sat next to him, occasionally poking him and watching in amusement as he twitched a bit. Violet was up in a tree, looking around at the scenery, and finally, Jeff was laying on his back on the ground, arms and legs spread out, completely asleep.

"Well, glad to see you're all comfortable," Masky said, a bit of amusement slipping into his voice at the sight of them all lying about like that.

"Finally!" Violet groaned in exasperation. "You're back! I was beginning to think that you ditched us!"

He shook his head, replying, "No, Violet, I did not ditch you guys. It just took me a little while to get enough money for us to get started and what not. I got it though." Digging into his pocket, he pulled out a thick wad of cash, displaying it to them and smirking a bit at their shocked expressions.

"What the fuck did you do? Rob a bank?" Lucy asked, her voice coming out as a hissed murmur since she didn't want to awake the sleeping boy lying on her lap.

Shaking his head, he just shrugged replying, "I pick pocketed a few people. You know, twenty, thirty people? Something like that? The grocery store is a great place for pick pocketing. It's crowded, there are lots of people, no one is ever there for long enough to catch on, and everyone keeps crashing and bumping into each other all the time. It's perfect."

E.J. shook his head, sighing a bit. "When you can get away with pick pocketing twenty to thirty people in the same place in one day and not get caught, you know that you are way too invested in your criminal ways."

"Yeah, yeah, kidney eater. We got some money, that's all that matters," Lucy said, waving her free hand at him to brush off his pessimism.

Masky nodded, adding, "I think I also found a place for us to stay, at least for now."

"Well," Lucy said, waving her hand as a sign for him to go on. "What is it? Come on, tell us."

He rolled his eyes, replying, "It's this little inn in town. It's small, cheap, and family owned. They likely don't ask for ID, and it'd be easy to pay for a night or two there until we can find a more permanent solution."

"Perfect!" Violet chirped, jumping down from the tree and landing on the ground nearby them. They always forgot how insanely strong she was even before becoming a pasta due to all those experiments she'd gone through. "I guess it's all settled then!"

Finally speaking up, Clockwork glanced around, saying, "Um, first we might want to wake everyone up..."

Violet looked around as well, nodding in agreement. "Yeah... That might be a good idea..."

Shrugging, Lucy carefully stood up, picking up BEN with her. "Eh, we can always leave Jeff here. I don't mind if he keeps sleeping. Feel free to wake up Toby, though."

Rolling his eyes, E.J. stood up as well, picking Sally up with him. "Clockwork, could you please wake Toby up? Violet, you can get Jeff."

The tan, curly haired girl looked over at him before turning her attention to Jeff again, a small, evil smirk coming onto her face. "Yes, sir!"

* * *

Jeff groaned rubbing his back in pain. "I still can't believe that you did a flying body slam to wake me up. Seriously, there were so many better ways you could have woken me up."

Violet, who skipped along beside him, smiled cheerfully, obviously pleased with herself. "Maybe for you. That was the best way for me, though, because it was really funny."

"I really fucking hate you," Jeff growled, glaring at her. She just shrugged, her mood not dampened in even the slightest by his hateful attitude.

"Guys, stop fighting," Clockwork sighed, tucking a strand of brown hair behind her ear. It was starting to get really old listening to Jeff argue with Violet and Lucy. Those three just never stopped.

"Remind me why I'm carrying him again?" Masky asked, sighing heavily. He currently had Toby slumped over his shoulder and was carrying him with a bit of difficulty.

"Because he wouldn't wake up, and I can't carry that much weight. Besides, you were the one who made the mistake of handing him BEN, so it's technically your fault that he passed out anyways," Lucy said, shrugging a little bit. Her and E.J. were walking at the front of the group carrying BEN and Sally in their arms.

Sighing, Masky hung his head. He got them all that money and scouted out a place for them to stay, and this was what he got in return? To carry around a passed out Toby, who was so much heavier than he appeared? This really sucked...

"Stop complaining," Lucy suddenly said, not even glancing back at him.

"Wha- but, I wasn't even complaining!" he said, staring at her incredulously.

"You were thinking it, though. Trust me, I can tell. You're complaining on the inside."

He growled a bit, glaring at her. How the hell did she do that?! This was why he didn't hang around her. She had this uncanny ability of either irritating or creeping out everyone around her. Sometimes, both.

Finally entering the town, they looked around, taking in their new surroundings. Humming a bit, Jeff said, "You know, I think I might've killed someone here before. It looks pretty familiar."

Rolling her eyes Lucy, looked around, wondering where this inn they were looking for was. "Masky, where's that place that you wanted us to check out?"

Glancing around, he was about to reply when he froze, realizing something. People kept giving them weird looks... "Guys," he whispered, a slight urgency to his voice. "We need to get off the street. Now."

"What, why?" Jeff asked, raising a brow. He didn't receive an answer, though, as Masky had already dodged into a nearby alleyway. Looking at the others, E.J. shrugged, following after him with Clockwork, Lucy, and Violet right behind. Sighing, he shook his head, following after them while muttering under his breath.

Now standing in a group in the alleyway, Clockwork looked curiously at Masky, asking, "So, why did we have to get off the street? Is something wrong?"

Nodding, he gestured at them all with wide eyes. "Guys, we look like serial killers."

Raising a brow, Jeff replied, "Uh, that's probably because we are serial killers, Masky. Are you sure it was Toby who hit his head? He didn't just take the fall for yah?"

Shaking his head quickly, the masked man glared at him. "I know that we're serial killers, or at least you are, but we're human now, and walking around in broad daylight wearing masks, covered in blood, and holding weapons might not be the best idea! Especially considering that we're currently carrying three unconscious people."

"He makes a point," E.J. agreed, nodding his head.

"Yeah," Violet said, "it should be easy enough to take off the masks and hide the weapons, but what about our clothes? We don't exactly have extras."

They all went silent for a moment, thinking. Then Lucy turned to Masky, pointing at him, "Hey, you've got lots of money on you. It'd be easy enough to exchange some of it into quarters and use the local laundromat. You boys have all got shirts on under your hoodies, at least I assume you do, so you can take those off and clean them. Then, once those are clean, everyone can strip and us girls can wear your hoodies and go wash the rest of the clothes. Easy as pie."

They all stared at her, and finally Jeff spoke us, exclaiming, "How the fuck did you come up with that?!"

"Because I'm a genius," she replied simply. "Come on, it's the best we can do, right? It should work just fine."

"Yeah, but one problem," Jeff argued, holding up a finger. "What do we wear while you girls wash the clothes?"

Shrugging, she suggested, "Your underwear? It's just like shorts anyways."

Gaping at her, he was about to argue again, but Masky nodded before he could, agreeing to the plan. "She's right," he said. "That is probably the best we'll be able to do, and it should work just fine. Sure, it might be a bit uncomfortable, but it's better than being arrested for walking around covered in blood."

Carefully setting Toby down on the ground, leaning him against the wall, Masky unzipped his sweatshirt, pulling it off and revealing the plain white t-shirt beneath. E.J. did the same, handing Sally to Violet before pulling off his own sweatshirt and folding it over his arm, wearing a gray tank top beneath. Grunting, Jeff rolled his eyes, pulling off his sweatshirt and revealing... nothing.

"Seriously, you just wear that hoodie?" Lucy asked, raising a brow.

"Hey, don't judge me," he snapped, glaring at her and crumpling the blood stained hoodie into a ball in his arms. "It gets hot running around killing people all the time!"

"So don't wear a hoodie!" she exclaimed, stating the obvious. He just flipped her off in reply, prompting her to growl menacingly at him.

Kneeling down, Masky unzipped Toby's jacket, sliding it off his arms and pulling it out from around him, bundling it up with his own. "There, now we've got everyone's sweatshirts. We'll go find the laundromat and clean these, then we'll be back to switch out."

The girls nodded, and the three boys left off, leaving them with the sleeping children and knocked out Toby in the alleyway.

Glancing around, Violet looked at their three passed out friends before saying, "You know, someone should probably wake them up at some point."

* * *

"This is stupid."

Sighing, Masky poured the detergent into the machine, pressing a button and turning on the water cycle. "Stop complaining, Jeff. It's laundry, not the end of the world."

"I hate doing laundry," he replied, crossing his arms angrily, "and I'm sick of everyone staring at me in here."

"Maybe that's because you're not wearing a shirt," Masky said, shrugging his shoulders.

"Shut up!" Jeff snapped, glaring at him. E.J. just rolled his eyes at their childishness. Seriously, when would they learn to grow up?

* * *

"Alright, Violet, put the quarters in the machine there," Lucy instructed, gesturing to the coin slot set into the machine. Nodding, the brown haired girl slid in the coins needed while Clockwork poured in the detergent, shutting the cap once it has been properly filled. Finally, Lucy pressed the button to start it, stepping back and nodding in satisfaction at their work. "There! All done! Now we wait!"

"Hey, we're pretty good at this! Maybe we should clean for a living!" Violet chirped, looking at them with bright eyes.

Rolling her eyes, Lucy drawled, "Yeah..." making her way over to a bench near the window, "don't sign me up for that one. I get enough work cleaning up after the boys as it is, and last time I checked they weren't exactly paying me."

"Yeah, same," Clockwork agreed, following after her and sitting down on the bench.

Shrugging, Violet skipped after them, sitting down on the bench and swinging her legs back and forth. She seemed to be bursting with energy, whereas the other two were nearly toppling over with exhaustion.

"It feels weird wearing the boys' hoodies," Clockwork said, more to break the silence than anything. She sat there in Masky's hoodie, the orange fabric nearly drowning her, while Lucy wore E.J.'s hoodie and Violet wore Jeff's. Sally sat back in the alleyway with the boys wearing Toby's.

Shrugging, Lucy replied with a short, "Eh. Not really."

"Speaking of hoodies..." Violet said, resting her chin on the palms of her hands. "We still haven't found Hoodie. I wonder where he could be?"

Placing her cheek on her hand, Clockwork rolled her eyes to the ceiling, thinking for a moment. "Maybe he already made it out of the woods?" she suggested, shrugging her shoulders a bit.

"Yeah, maybe. Or maybe he's still lost," Violet added, leaning her head back against the window and staring up at the ceiling tiles.

"Whatever..." Lucy murmured. "I'm too tired to think about this shit."

There was a dinging sound from the washing machine, and Violet jumped to her feet, skipping towards it. "Come on! Now we gotta put them in the dryer!"

* * *

"Ugh, it's fucking freezing out here! When the hell are they gonna get back here?" Jeff complained, huffing and crossing his arms over his chest while leaning back against the brick wall of the building behind him. Along with Masky, E.J., BEN, and Sally, they all sat in the dark alley, Masky leant back against the wall, BEN sitting beside E.J., and Sally curled up on E.J.'s lap, barely awake. Toby still just lay slumped against the wall, unconscious.

"Stop complaining, asshole," Masky sighed, sick of hearing him complaining. He'd put up with Jeff all day, and that was about his limit. That guy just never shut up for even a second it seemed.

"You're the asshole, asshole," Jeff replied, shooting him a glare.

"You're both assholes. Now shut the fuck up," BEN groaned, rubbing his eyes tiredly. Everyone turned to look at the younger boy, and Jeff opened his mouth, about to reply, but was quickly cut off by the sound of a different voice.

"Hey, boys! We're back!" Lucy called, walking into the alley with Clockwork and Violet right behind, arms full of freshly cleaned laundry.

"We brought clothes!" Violet sang, skipping in and brandishing her arms load of clothing cheerfully. Jeff was first on his feet, snatching his jeans and socks from Clockwork's pile and tugging them on, glad to be back into his clothes. The rest of the boys got up and grabbed their clothing as well, Violet tossing E.J.'s to him so he didn't have to disturb Sally.

Waking Sally up, they let the boys get dressed before the girls turned to give them expectant looks. Not understanding, they just stared back, unsure what they wanted. Sighing, Lucy made a spinning gesture with her finger, saying, "Turn around. You can't see us getting dressed."

Opening his mouth to complain, Jeff was quickly cut off by E.J. slapping a hand over his mouth, silently shaking his head no before turning around, forcing Jeff to turn as well. Once the boys had their back turned, the girls stripped the hoodies and got dressed, helping Sally into her nightgown before tapping the boys on the shoulders, letting them know they were dressed now. After handing them back their hoodies, they then faced the hardest challenge: dressing Toby.

"Alright, Masky, E.J., you guys pick him up and Clockwork and I will try and get his clothes onto him," Lucy instructed, turning her eyes onto the unconscious boy still laying slumped against the wall.

Nodding, the two boys picked him up, holding him in the air between them. The girls then grabbed his clothes, struggling to get them on him. It was almost like a weird game of twister, everyone getting all tangled up trying to go under and around each other, moving and twisting limbs all while trying not to drop him. There were a couple of close calls, but in the end they did manage it, and Toby now sat on the ground in the alleyway fully dressed.

Sighing in relief, Lucy wiped a hand across her forehead, nodding. "Well, now that that's out of the way..."

"Should we get going?" Clockwork finished for her, looking up at the now completely dark sky. It was around 8:30 at night, so if they were going to go to this inn that Masky had supposedly found, then now would be the time.

Nodding in agreement, Masky lifted Toby onto his back with a bit of help from Violet, making sure he was secure before standing fully. "Come on then, I'll lead the way."

Picking up Sally and placing the nearly asleep girl on his hip, E.J. nodded, following after him. Lucy picked up BEN as well, and Violet, Clockwork, and Jeff all followed after. Soon, they were all on the move.

Shifting uncomfortably as they walked, Jeff said, "It feels weird not carrying my knife with me."

Sighing, Masky replied, "I know, but we all agreed that we would leave them in that alley so that no one could possibly find us suspicious."

"Hey, don't give yourself too much credit. We're dirty strangers that are carrying an unconscious teen. We're still pretty freaking suspicious," Lucy said, not bothering to even look at him as she spoke.

Rolling his eyes, Masky continued, saying," Whatever. My point is, it's not a good idea to be walking around with those things, so for now we'll just have to leave them there. Once we find a way, then we can go back and get them. For now, though, they should be safe there."

Grumbling a bit under his breath, Jeff looked away, muttering, "Whatever. I still don't like it."

Sighing, Lucy asked with an immense amount of irritation, "Will someone please shut him up?" A second later there was a solid smack and a resounding yelp of surprise.

"The fuck, Violet?!"

"She said to shut you up!"

"So you freaking slapped me?!"

"Yep!"

"Why you fucking b-"

"We're here!"

Pausing in their arguing, Violet and Jeff looked up along with everyone else, finding themselves in front of a large, Victorian style building. It was an old, green house with black shingle roof and a wraparound porch. Long, gold-white curtains hung in the massive windows, and a rocking swing and some cushioned summer furniture was set out on the porch along with a small glass table. There was a lovely garden visible in the back and a few scattered trees on the front lawn along with a row of flowers lining the side of the house. It was quaint, but lovely none the less, although maybe not quite to all their tastes. Sally would like it though, when she woke up that is.

Walking up the front steps, Masky pushed open the door, walking inside with Toby still held on his back. E.J. and Lucy followed behind with a sleeping Sally and nearly sleeping BEN, and Clockwork herded Violet and Jeff inside as well before they could continue their earlier argument.

Walking in, they stood crowded into the little front reception area. On either side were archways leading into what appeared on one side as a sort of common room and on the other a dining room of sorts. In front of them was the reception desk and beside it a large staircase leading to the rooms upstairs. Again, it was small and quaint, but well kept and cleansly. Almost kind of grandmotherly.

"Oh, hey guys!" a voice suddenly came from the common room, surprising them all. "So you finally made it out! About time! I was wondering when you'd show up!"

Looking in the direction of the voice, they were all shocked to see who sat there. Sitting at a small, wooden table and drinking small cups of tea were Hoodie and L.J., or at least whom they assumed were Hoodie and L.J. Hoodie had brown hair that fell over his forehead and deep brown eyes, smiling over at them. He'd been the one to speak. L.J. had shoulder length, messy, black hair and silver eyes, a wide grin on his face as he sipped at his tea. Hoodie wore his usual orange hoodie and jeans while L.J. instead wore a simple black long sleeve and blue skinny jeans rather than his usual striped clown suit. Under the table sat a husky dog with frightening, silver eyes.

' _Finally! I thought you guys might be lost!_ ' an eerie, raspy voice that they all knew too well spoke to them with a slight echo, seeming to actually be talking inside of their heads.

It was silent a moment, none of them knowing what to say, when Jeff finally broke the calm, screaming loudly. "What the fuck?! When the fuck did you guys get here?!"

Thinking about it a moment, L.J. shrugged, replying, "Two days ago, I guess. We were out of the woods the moment we realized we were human. Only a moron would stick around there."

Now seething with anger, Jeff lunged forward, screaming, "I'm going to fucking KILL YOU!"

Grabbing him immediately by the hood, Clockwork and Violet yelled at him to calm down, trying to hold him back as he continued to struggle to move forward. Setting BEN down, Lucy stepped forward, joining the fray and screaming at Jeff to 'cut the shit'.

Meanwhile, Hoodie had just noticed the unconscious boy being carried by Masky, asking, "Hey, why is Masky carrying Toby?"

Sighing, E.J. stepped away from all the chaos, walking over to the front desk where a girl with short brown hair had come only a moment ago to attend, giving the chaotic group weird looks. Fixing Sally on his hip so that she wouldn't slip, he looked up at the girl who had now turned her attention onto him. "Hi, we'd like to check in please."

* * *

 **A/N - A little delayed, but another chapter is up! Whoo! Thanks for reading and don't forget to leave a review, let me know how you liked it. ;)**


	6. Chapter 6

Sunlight filtered in slowly through the gaps in the curtains, lighting the room with a soft, warm glow. Shifting a bit in her bed, Lucy turned over, hugging her pillow close to her chest with blonde strands falling and cascading over her face. Murmuring softly, she sighed a bit, eyelashes fluttering ever so gently as warm light bounced off them, glimmering and lighting her hair almost golden.

"Huh, you know, she's actually kind of pretty when she's not cussing you out and threatening to strangle you with that crazy bracelet of hers," a voice, male, said from beside her bed, breaking the silence and surprising her.

Yelping, Lucy rolled over, scrambling to detangle herself from the blankets and sheets, arms waving around crazily in a vain attempt to try and keep her balance. Shrieking as she fell face first into the bed, she pushed herself up on her arms, blowing hair from her face and turning her electric blue eyes up at the small crowd of people standing in front of her bed.

"The fuck are you all doing...?" she asked, glaring a bit. At the moment, Violet, Jeff, L.J., Toby, and Smile Dog all stood in front of her bed staring down at her, standing perfectly still with smiles on their faces.

"We're your wake up call!" Violet cheered, throwing her arms out at her sides and grinning, ignoring the yelp of pain from Jeff as he reeled away from her, clutching his assaulted nose.

Glaring at them, she growled darkly, narrowing her eyes at them angrily. Toby gulped a bit, murmuring, "I'm not sure this was such a great idea..."

Meanwhile, Hoodie, Masky, Clockwork, Sally, BEN, and E.J. all sat downstairs in the dining room eating breakfast, nobody speaking. It was calm and peaceful, the morning sun filling the room with a comfortable light and the warm food casting a pleasant aroma into the air around them.

Hearing a loud crash, screaming and yelling, the sounds of feet running, and finally more screams from upstairs, Masky shook his head, looking up at the ceiling which seemed to shake ever so slightly. "Sounds like they woke Lucy up."

"I told them it was a bad idea," E.J. sighed, shaking his head and taking a bite of his eggs.

"It was their own death wish," Masky replied with a shrug, looking back down at the book he was reading. There was a bookcase in the common room, so he'd skimmed through it and chosen a book to borrow for a bit. He had nothing better to do anyhow.

It was silent for another moment before the sound of footsteps coming down the staircase came to their ears, alerting their attention to the presence of someone else. Looking up, they watched a bedraggled Lucy come in in her usual white blouse and underwear. Standing up, E.J. pulled off his hoodie, handing it over to her. Nodding in thanks, she pulled her arms through the sleeves, zipping it up and effectively covering herself. Then walking over to an empty seat between Sally and Clockwork, she sat down, serving herself a plate and beginning to eat, allowing Sally to play with her hair next to her and pull it away from her face, detangling it a bit and beginning to braid small pieces.

Silence remained for another few moments, none of the 'wake up crew' coming back from downstairs. Finally, Smile Dog came trotting downstairs followed by Violet and L.J. Jeff and Toby seemed to have completely disappeared.

Raising a brow, Masky asked, "What happened to the other two?"

Shrugging, Violet sat down, replying, "Toby got knocked out again."

"And Jeff?" he asked a bit reluctantly.

Shrugging again she helped herself to some food, replying, "I knocked him out."

Masky opened his mouth, likely to ask why she had knocked him out, but then quickly shut it, deciding it was better not to ask. With Violet, it was always better not to ask.

* * *

"So... are you all planning on doing anything, or...?"

"Hm?" looking up from the book she was reading, Lucy saw the young girl that worked there, Samantha, standing behind her with small stack of folded, clean towels in her arms. Apparently, her grandmother owned the inn, so they both lived and worked there. Samantha basically did everything from concierge to housekeeping. "What do yah mean?"

Sighing a bit, Samantha brushed her short brown hair back from her face a bit, tucking a few strands behind her ear and turning deep blue eyes on her. "I mean, that you guys have just been sitting around here all day. Isn't there a reason you're in town or something? You know, something for you to do?"

Seeming to think about it a moment, Lucy shook her head, looking back at her book again. "Nope."

Rolling her eyes, Samantha looked over at all the guests sitting about in the common room. Lucy and E.J. were sitting on the couch reading, Toby (he'd awoken awhile ago now) was playing a game of checkers against Violet, Jeff was frustrating himself with a game in which L.J. had hidden a piece of candy under a cup and kept switching them up, Smile Dog was laying on the rug taking a nap, BEN and Sally were sitting on the floor and playing red hands, and finally, Hoodie, Masky, and Clockwork were all sitting in armchairs around a table just chatting.

"You do know we don't allow pets here?" Samantha said, raising a brow at the sleeping husky laying on their rug. She only got a shrug in reply, and frustrated, she turned and left, grumbling something as she stomped upstairs to put away the towels.

Looking up from his book (finally), E.J. watched her go, turning his gaze onto Lucy and asking, "You tick her off?"

She shrugged, glancing over at him. "I dunno. I tick everyone off."

He was silent a moment before shrugging, looking back down at his book. "True enough."

"Who was that anyway?" Masky asked, looking over at them and momentarily halting his conversation with Hoodie and Clockwork.

"Her name's S-Sammy," Toby piped up, moving a checker while sticking his tongue out from the side of his mouth a bit in concentration.

Looking over at him, Lucy asked with a hint of surprise, "How do you know that?"

Shrugging, he simply replied, "I as-asked."

Blinking, she shook her head, looking back down at her book. When he put it that way, it was actually kind of obvious, so she would just keep quiet and not say anything to avoid further embarrassing herself.

"Haha! Yes, ch-checkmate!" Toby shouted, jumping up from his seat and shooting his arms into the air in victory. A second later, Violet shot out a fist and punched him in the stomach, causing him to double over in pain.

"Remind me to never play a game against Violet. She's a sore loser," L.J. noted, snickering as Jeff clutched at his hair, having lost yet another round of 'find the candy'.

Sighing, Samantha came back downstairs, giving them all a blank look as she entered the room. She wasn't sure that she was a huge fan of this particular group of people. She hadn't actually interacted with most of them, but on the other hand, she wasn't really sure that she wanted to. Those Toby and Jack guys weren't too bad, but the rest of them...

"So," Sam started, walking over and standing beside the couch again. "I never did catch all of your names."

"Well, you already know that I'm Toby!" Toby chirped, groaning as his stomach began to ache yet again.

"Jack," E.J. said simply, not looking up from his book as he flipped the page, still reading.

Glancing over at E.J., Lucy looked over at her, saying, "Lucy. Juuust Lucy."

Samantha nodded, turning to look expectantly at everyone else. They all remained silent a moment, probably trying to think of a name that might be acceptable by normal humans. Sally was the first to speak up. "I'm Sally!" she chirped, grinning broadly at her.

"And I'm Ben," BEN added. "Uh, with a capital 'B', a lowercase 'e', and a lowercase 'n'."

Giving him an odd look, Samantha said, "Okay... Well, nice meeting you Sally and BEN with a capital B and lowercase e and n."

"I'm Jack as well! I'm Jack L., though, and he's Jack E.!" L.J. said, grinning and waving his hand to attract attention to himself.

"Tim," Masky said, nodding in agreement.

"Natalie," Clockwork added, raising a hand and waving a little.

"Brian," Hoodie added.

"Violet!" Violet yelled, grinning brightly and bouncing a bit in her seat.

Glaring a bit, Jeff muttered, "Jeff..."

"And that's Smile Dog!" Sally added, pointing over at the still sleeping husky.

Nodding and smiling a bit, Samantha folded her hands behind her back, rocking on her heels a bit. "Nice to meet you all! I'm Samantha, but you can call me Sammy."

"SAMMY!"

Jumping a bit in surprise, they all turned to look towards the reception area, seeing a boy with short, messy brown hair bursting in through the door.

"L-Lucas?!" Sammy asked in surprise, eyes widening. Then narrowing them a bit, she crossed her arms, asking, "What do you want? I told you not to come by here."

"I came to see you," he said, walking quickly into the room, not seeming to have noticed the rather large group of people already sitting there. "Sammy, I need you. Please, just come back. I really miss you."

Scowling, she stepped away from him. "No way. I told you, Lucas, It's over. O-V-E-R over! Why don't you get that?!"

"I just-" he started, but was cut off by another person stepping into the conversation, literally.

"Hey, she said to leave her alone, so why don't you leave her alone!" Lucy snapped, stepping between them and standing so that she completely blocked him off from getting near Sammy. The brown haired girl took this opportunity to further back away, getting a safe distance away from the boy who stood facing the angry guest.

"And who are you?" he asked, drawing back a lip in disgust. "Mind your own business!"

"Uh, well considering that I'm a guest here, and this is a common room where I am trying to peacefully read, which you are so rudely disrupting, I think that it kinda is my business," she snapped, glaring at him with piercing, electric blue eyes that shone vibrantly in comparison to his deep blue ones.

"Yeah, well it really isn't! You're just being noisy, so buzz off!" he snapped back, glaring at her. There was a collective gasp from the other assembled guests, and Lucy slowly closed her eyes, nearly shaking in anger.

"Oh, you're dead," she said quietly before snapping her eyes open and slamming her fist into his face. There was a resounding 'CRACK' and everyone in the room winced, watching him stumble back a couple feet before crashing onto the floor of the common room, laying there a moment.

"Is he dead?" Sally spoke up, whimpering a little as she hid behind Clockwork.

"Ugh," Lucas groaned, answering that question for them. "Damn, that hurt." Sitting up, he clutched his hands over his profusely bleeding and broken nose. "You broke my freaking nose!"

"Hmph." Shaking her hand out, Lucy just gave him a cold stare as a reply. Then turning and walking back over to the couch, she resumed her original position, picking up her book and continuing to read. Everyone watched her a moment before turning back to the bleeding boy sitting on the floor.

"I... think you should go," Sammy said a bit slowly, clutching her arm and looking away. He stared at her a moment, but finally nodded, slowly getting to his feet with another groan and heading towards the door.

Pausing a moment in the doorway, he turned to take one last look at the people standing crowded about in the room. First at the girl whom he'd come to try and get back, and then at the blonde sitting on the couch and ignoring him. Turning forward again, he left, shutting the front door behind him and walking down the steps, leaving the inn.

"Well... That was a thing!" Violet said, breaking the silence.

Sighing, Sammy shook her head, running a hand through her hair. "I... think I'm going to bed."

With that, she turned, walking upstairs to the rooms. Her and her grandmother had their own rooms at the very end of the hall where they slept, so she would be going there. Standing still a moment, saying nothing, evey drone then began got finally move, going back to where they were sitting before. Nobody spoke, afraid Lucy get still be mad and snap at them. She had a kinda blank look on her face right now, so they couldn't really tell whether she was still pissed or not.

"Lucy..." Jeff spoke up, causing everyone else to look up, taking in sharp breathes of anticipation. "... you still pissed?"

Shaking his head, E.J. muttered something along the lines of 'moron', lifting his book a bit higher to block out whatever scene might be about to take place. That turned out to be a good idea when there was the sound of skin smacking skin followed by a fair amount of weight crashing to the floor. Looking over the top of his book, he saw Jeff lying on the ground with a red, fist-shaped mark on his cheek. "Thought so..." he murmured, shaking his head and going back to reading his book again.

"Of course I'm still pissed, you freaking moron! Ugh, I'm going to bed!" Turning on her heel, Lucy marched over to the steps stomping up them. It was silent another moment before they heard her coming back down again. Poking her head down and glaring at them, she added, "And nobody follow me!" With that, she then disappeared again.

Letting out a low whistle, L.J. said, "Remind me not to piss her off."

Snorting a bit, Violet added, "Yeah, no kidding. By the way, anywhere I can sleep tonight? We share a room, and no way in hell am I going up there now."

Sighing a bit, Clockwork raised a finger, saying, "You can stay with me."

* * *

Rolling over in bed, Lucy grunted, beating the pillow with a fist and rolling over again. Again beating the pillow and this time rustling the blanket, she rolled over again. Finally sitting up, she screamed in frustration, blowing her hair from her face. "UGH, I CAN'T FREAKING SLEEP!"

* * *

 **A/N - Eh, a bit of writer's block towards the end there, but I tried. I did honestly have fun with this chapter, though, and I really enjoyed getting to introduce Sammy and Lucas to you guys. Yes, there will be some ocs in this story, but I think you'll live. There needs to be some other people around after all. Oh, and despite what it might seem, Lucas is NOT a bad guy. He just made a bad first impression, but he is honestly a good guy. Actually, he's kinda my favorite personally. X3**

 **Anyways, that's all for today! See yah next chapter! :)**

 **Pretty Lucy, Samantha Greene, Lucas Carhartt: Me**

 **Violet: faithdakitty**

 **Depressed Sally: Kiki-hyuga**

 **Ticci Toby: kastoway**

 **Hoodie & Masky: Marble Hornets**

 **Clockwork, Jeff The Killer, Eyeless Jack, Laughing Jack, Smile Dog, BEN Drowned: respectful owners**


	7. Chapter 7

"So..."

"What?"

"Well, I was just wondering..."

"What?"

"Do you guys actually plan on doing anything or just sitting around here?"

Lucy looked up from her book, shooting Sammy a small glare. "What's that supposed to mean?" she snapped, blue eyes narrowing a bit.

"Well..." she said slowly, locking her hands behind her back and swiveling side to side a bit. "It's just that you guys have been here a week now and you never leave the inn. Do you guys even own changes of clothes, because I haven't seen you wear anything different at all this entire time?"

Growling a bit, Lucy stood up rather suddenly, whipping her head around to glare at the young girl. "Would you shut the fuck up?! No, we don't have changes of clothing. We don't have anywhere to go either, because we don't even know where the fuck we are, so lay off, will yah?!"

Sammy blinked, staring at her with wide eyes and slowly leaning away from her a bit. Jeez, she was scary... She could see why all the others were so scared of her now...

Scoffing, Lucy spun, marching out of the common room. Just reaching the threshold, she ran directly into Lucas who had just entered the house. Scowling again, she shoved him aside, marching past and heading up the stairs to her room.

Watching the blonde disappear over his shoulder, Lucas turned to look at Sammy, asking, "What's up with her?"

Sammy sighed, shaking her head. "I dunno..." Looking up at him, she asked, "What are you doing here anyways? I thought I asked you not to come back here."

"You did," he replied, shrugging, "but I didn't listen."

Shaking her head again, Sammy sighed, walking past him. "Fine, whatever. If you're going to stay, though, then at least help me out. Grab some towels."

Lucas shrugged, grabbing a stack of towels she'd set down and following after her. He didn't mind doing some work. Besides, that meant more time with Sammy. Smiling cheerfully, he walked after her, happy as can be.

* * *

"So... do you guys go to school or...?" Lucas asked, staring oddly at the group. They all currently sat around the dining table for lunch. Sammy's grandmother Elizabeth, or 'Grandmama' as she preferred, had even joined them, setting out some sandwiches and sitting beside her granddaughter at the table.

"What? No," Jeff replied, scowling fiercely. "School sucks."

"Wait," Grandmama spoke up, frowning a bit. "None of you go to school? Not even Sally or Ben?"

Shaking his head, Jeff shoved a sandwich into his mouth, taking a massive bite and chewing it sloppily. Rolling her eyes, Lucy elbowed him sharply, causing him to jolt forward and clutch at his throat, nearly choking on the food. Across the table Violet began to giggle, enjoying the little bit of 'entertainment'.

"I used to go to school, but not anymore," Sally said, swinging her legs under the table and drinking from her glass of ginger ale. This received another surprised look from the older woman, who by now looked almost appalled.

"That's ridiculous!" she exclaimed, setting her glass down and shaking her head. "Especially for Sally and Ben. At their age, it's legally required to be going to school. What about parents? How long do you kids plan on staying here exactly?"

"It's... undetermined," Masky replied, sighing and chewing at his lip a bit. "Hoodie, L.J., and I are their guardians. We're sort of on our own at the moment, and so we don't have much place to go. We're just kind of trying to figure the out for now."

Grandmama frowned, giving him a sympathetic look at turning to look around the table at all the other guests. "You poor hunnies," she said, shaking her head. "Well, you're welcome to stay here as long as you need. Only on the condition, though, that you will begin to attend the local school whilst you're here. I don't want any of you falling behind in your educations after all."

Masky turned his gaze to the others, giving them hesitant ". The glares he was receiving from Jeff and Lucy told him that school was a bad idea while the sparkly eyes he was getting from Toby and Sally said otherwise. Everyone else appeared either neutral of undecided on the topic.

Sighing, he nodded, replying, "Yeah, that's reasonable. I can go sign them up later today of you'll give me directions to the schools."

Jaw dropping, Jeff stared wide eyed at him, completely unbelieving. "Are you kidding me? No way am I going to freaking school! You gotta be outta your mind!"

Glaring at him, Masky hissed, "Jeff, watch your mouth. Besides, you're fifteen. By law you have to go to school. You can't drop out until sixteen." Then muttering under his breath, he quietly added to himself, "You could probably use the education anyways, dumbass."

Piping up, Lucy said, "Hey, I'm seventeen. Does that mean I don't have to go?" Seeing the look on Masky's face, she rolled her eyes, muttering, "Whatever."

Smiling in satisfaction, Grandmama stood from her seat, collecting the used plates. "Well now that that's settled, I'll take you down to the schools tomorrow so you can sign them up."

Masky nodded, smiling politely. Of course, he knew he'd get his butt kicked for this one, but what choice did they have? Besides, if they were going to fit into this world without being discovered then they needed to act and behave as regular humans, even if it's meant doing some turns they weren't so pleased with. Who knows, it might even be good for them to get some education. They weren't exactly the brightest group. Most had never gone to school, and even those who had never finished. Hell, Violet never made it past preschool. These kids could use some book smarts under their belts.

"Masky..." he heard the threatening tone of Lucy's voice and paled a bit. On second thought, maybe they didn't even need book smarts. They could just scare people to get what they wanted instead.

* * *

Masky sat in the front office of the local high school, Elliot High. He'd been told to just fill out some papers regarding emergency information and such for each kid he was signing up. It was hard trying to come up with last names for them all. It was important, though, especially for Toby and Jeff considering how they were on the missing persons list technically. The last thing they needed was for those two to be brought in and interrogated on the deaths of their families. Then Ben and E.J. didn't have last names, Sally was supposed to be dead, Violet couldn't remember hers, Clockwork couldn't use hers either, and Lucy refused to tell them hers, so he basically had to come up with new last names for them all. Some even needed new first names too. Sighing, he shook his head. So complicated.

Getting up, he set the papers on the front desk, speaking with the lady and nodding as she told him everything he'd need to know. She gave him schedules for all the teens and informed him that they may start school the next day. Oh, it was not going to be fun breaking that news to them.

* * *

After signing Ben "Highrule" and Sally "Williams" up for the local elementary school and receiving a list of things he'd need to buy them, Masky went back to the inn, coming through the door with a small stack of papers. God, those schools loved their paperwork.

Sitting down in the common room and setting the papers on the desk with a small sigh, he pinched the bridge of his nose, a bit exhausted mentally. Hearing someone enter the room, he looked up to see Hoodie looking over his shoulder.

"What's all that paper for?" he asked, gesturing to the little stack.

Sighing again, Masky sat up straight again, replying, "Schedules and lists of needed supplies. We're going to have to go shopping tonight. They all start in the morning."

Hoodie blew out a long, low whistle, shaking his head. "Man, what a pain. They aren't going to be happy."

Masky just shrugged, leaning back against the chair again. "They don't really have a choice. Beside, it's not like it'll kill them. If they can survive a few days of no food, water, and shelter in the woods, then I honk they can survive a week or two of school."

"Yeah," Hoodie replied slowly, "but what if it isn't just for a week or two? What if it's for a month, or a year, or even the rest off their lives?" Sighing, he's shook his head. "You know, I hate to be the one to say this, but someone's got to. Masky, we don't know how or when well return to normal. We don't even know if we'll return to normal. We could very well be stuck this way forever."

Masky shook his head, standing up. "Don't say that," he snapped, glaring at him a bit. He didn't want to think about this. Not now and not ever. Turning, he started towards the stairs, muttering, "I'm going to go get everyone for school shopping.

* * *

"I want this one!"

"Ooh, I like this one!"

"I swear, Jeff, try and wave that thing in my face one more time and I'll slap you!"

The group (and Sammy and Lucas) was currently at the local Wal-Mart shopping for school supplies. Right now, they were in the backpack section, trying to find a backpack for everyone to use. Of course, Ben immediately found as nice little Legend of Zelda one, and Sally was enjoying her new Frozen bag. She hadn't even seen the movie, but she thought the snowman was cute. She was happy, so it didn't really matter. Then Jeff was attempting to push a pink Disney Princess bag onto Lucy who was looking about ready to kill him.

Grabbing a My Chemical Romance bag, Violet grinned widely, holding it up in front of her. "Found mine!" she chirped, bouncing a bit in excitement.

"Same," E.J. said a bit more quietly, grabbing a plain black bag off of a shelf. Clockwork had a blue one with flowers and dragonflies on it, slipping it onto her back to try it out. She nodded, satisfied. Lucy also appeared to have found her, a black Paramore bag with the word 'riot' written all over it. Finally, Jeff grabbed a random white bag and Toby snatched up a Lilo & Stitch bag probably meant for someone far younger in age.

Sighing, glad that they'd finally decided, Masky waved an arm, heading towards the other side of the aisle. "Come on. Now we need to greet some pencils and notebooks and such."

"So, what exactly do you need for high school?" Violet asked, looking over at Sammy who walked beside her.

"Well..." Sammy began, thinking a moment. "You need some notebooks, binders, pencils, pens, paper, and maybe some markers or something. Those are often helpful."

The curly haired girl nodded, looking around before running off to grab a box of markers. Sammy went to say something, but saw it was useless and just closed her mouth again, rolling her eyes a bit. She really didn't get these people.

"Dude, there's like a fifty pack of pencils over here. I know kids lose their pencils easily, but seriously?" Lucy said, grabbing the massive pack off the rack and raising a brow at it.

Grabbing it from her hands, Masky set the pack into the cart. That would be rather useful considering how many people they had to supply for...

Tossing a pack of pens into the cart, Lucas stood on his toes, wiggling his fingers in an attempt to reach a large pack of paper hanging over his head. He continued to stretch, grunting with the effort of trying to reach it. A hand finally reached over him, taking it down and handing it to him. Looking over, he saw the ever silent E.J. holding his out to him. Taking it from him, he gave him a sheepish smile. "Thanks," he said, setting it into the cart. E.J. just nodded, going off to help pry a rather pissed Lucy off of Jeff for perhaps the fourth time that day. How those two would survive school without getting suspended would be a mystery to them all. Honestly, it would likely be a miracle for them not to get suspended for fighting.

Tossing an entire box of notebooks into the cart, Masky topped it with some binders before looking it over. He had no idea if they'd gotten too little, too much, or just the right amount, but either way they still had the needed supplies, so it should be fine no matter what. "Alright," he said, turning to look at everyone, "now we just need to do a bit of clothes shopping for you all and we'll be all good."

"Ooh, yay! Clothes shopping!" Sally cheered, jumping up and excitedly.

"Ugh, do we have to?" Jeff complained, receiving a punch in the shoulder and a small glare from Violet as a response.

"Come on, it'll be fun!" Sammy tried to cheer them up. It didn't really work.

* * *

"Ugh, why do girls freakish wear this shit?! It is beyond uncomfortable!" Lucy's voice came from a stall in the changing room along with the sound of frustrated grunting.

"I don't know. Because it's in style I guess," Sammy replied from outside the stall, shrugging a bit although Lucy couldn't see it.

"Well style sucks!" she shouted, screaming in frustration again.

The door finally opened, Lucy holding a pair of jeans in her hands. Throwing them at Sammy, who yelped in surprise, diving forward a bit to catch them, she marched past, clearly not interested in wearing them. Sighing, she followed afterwards, walking back out into the main store where Violet, Clockwork, and Sally waited for them. The boys were over in the men's section shopping with Lucas.

"Come on, Lucy, it's not that hard. All we need to do is find everyone pajamas, a swimsuit, a jacket for winter, some boots, and suitable school clothing. It's really not all that difficult."

"Whatever," Lucy snapped, flipping quickly hero ugh a rack whilst barely even glancing at the clothing she pushed aside.

"Ooh!" Violet squealed, holding up a black bikini set. "Lucy, you would look great in this, don't you think?!"

Glaring at her, Lucy swing around, walking off and away from them. Surprised, Sammy scrambled after her, assign, "Hey, where are you going?!"

Glaring at her over her shoulder, the blonde snapped, "The men's section. I'm shopping with the boys." And with that, she disappeared, heading straight for the men's part of the store where the other guys should be.

Sighing, Sammy hung her head. She had one job: help the girls shop. Apparently, she couldn't even do that! Shaking her head, she turned around, seeing Violet and Sally running around and throwing balled up tee shirts at each other while Clockwork chased them, trying to get them to stop. It looked like she had a LOT of work to do.

* * *

"Why is it that you only wear white and black?"

"Shut up! I just happen to really like those colors, okay!"

Lucas stared oddly at Jeff, not quite understanding his monochromatic taste in clothing. The brunette was currently wearing a pair of white sneaker, black jeans, and a white tee shirt. Completely gray scale.

"Aren't the jeans you already have black anyways?" Lucas asked again, realizing they were almost the exact same pants.

"I said, shut up!"

"Now what are you boys arguing about?"

Looking over, they were all a bit surprised to see Lucy walking over, arms crossed over her chest.

"Hey, Lucy, what's up?" Masky asked, looking a little confused.

"I got sick of shopping with the girls, so I'm over here now," she replied, coming to a stop beside them, the look on her face daring them to even try and chase her off.

"Got it," he replied, deciding that was a dare he didn't want to try taking. Besides, as long as her and Jeff didn't start fighting, it should be fine.

"So... Is this normal for her?" Lucas asked, jutting a thumb at Lucy. Masky was about to reply when the blonde butt in, speaking before he could.

"Um, excuse me, but I can answer for myself. Don't talk about me while I'm standing right there, moron," she snapped, smacking the brunette upside the head.

Yelping in pain, Lucas grabbed at the side of his head, staring at her in surprise. " The hell?! You're so freaking violent!"

"Shut the fuck up!" she screamed, punching him hard in the shoulder. He replied by hitting her back, and soon the two were sprawling on the floor hitting each other and arguing.

"Wow," Jeff spoke up, stepping up next to Masky. "For once she's beating the crap outta someone other than me."

"Don't test your luck," he replied, sighing heavily. Why couldn't these guys ever make it easy for him? Stepping forward, he grabbed Lucas by the shoulders, pulling him away and out of Lucy's reach. "Alright, break it up! Come on!"

After E.J. had pulled Lucy back and Masky grabbed Lucas, security came and asked them to leave, telling them to please not ever come back. Exiting the building, they were then surprised to find the girls already out there, Sammy looking thoroughly pissed while Violet and Sally sat on the sidewalk and stared at the ground, ashamed looks on their faces. Clockwork just smiled sheepishly at them, looking incredibly uncomfortable with get current situation.

"What happened to you guys?" Lucas asked, his voice slightly slurred from a swollen lip.

"Got kicked out," Sammy replied in irritation, shooting Biolet and Sally glares, "thanks to a few certain girls who decided it would be fun to take all the clothing off of the racks and make a fort."

"It was a good idea too. We just didn't realize we weren't allowed," Sally mumbled quietly.

"This store sucks," Violet added, pouting and crossing her arms over her chest while kicking at the ground.

Sighing, Sammy ran a hand through her hair, finally looking up at them only to do a double take upon seeing the rather beaten and quickly bruising Lucas and Lucy. "What the heck happened to you two?!"

Masky sighed, replying, "They got into a fight."

"With each other," Ben added, clarifying it a bit.

"Jesus Christ," Sammy sighed, shaking her head. "Ugh, why me..." Getting to her feet, she sighed, turning Way and starting to walk. "Come on. Let's go try the next store. Oh, and this time, just stay quiet, try on clothing, and don't touch ANYTHING!" She turned to shoot them a dark look over her shoulder, asking, "Got it?"

They all nodded quickly, no one saying a word. Apparently satisfied, Sammy turned away again, continuing onwards. Looking over at everyone else, Ben muttered, "She is surprisingly scary when she wants to be."

"I know right," Lucas sighed dreamily. "She's so hot."

"You have weird taste, man," Jeff commented, giving him a strange look while unconsciously leaning away from him a bit.

"Whatever, let's just go," Lucy sighed, walking in the direction Sammy had left off in. Everyone else followed behind, Ben and Sally starting to fight over something stupid along the way.

* * *

 **A/N - I do apologize, because this is a complete filler chapter. I honestly had some writer's block, and although once I got going I knew what I was doing, it's still kinda just meh. I promise that next chapter will be more interesting, though, so no worries! I'll also be introducing a few more ocs next chapter, so that's something to look forward to. And, of course, Sammy and Lucas will still be there as well. You also got to meet Grandmama, so that's cool.**

 **I'd also like to thank everyone so far who has favorited/followed this story! You rock! :)**

 **crazy dragon ninja - That's a good point, and to be perfectly honest, I kind of completely forgot about that. Haha, whoops. My friend makes a good point, though, that maybe when he was turned human that was fixed, so now he can feel pain? I dunno, that's one theory apparently. I honestly just did forget though. X3 Thanks, though, and I'm super happy you like that story so far! That's awesome!**


	8. Chapter 8

Unfortunately, the dreaded day had arrived, and the pastas stood out front of Eren High (by the way, Eren is the name of the town since it was never mentioned), staring up at the brick building before them. Lucas and Sammy stood right with them, giving them all a moment to take it in before starting to prod them forward.  
"Come on," Sammy said, pushing a resistant Jeff forward a little. "If you keep gawking then you'll be late."  
"Don't touch me!" Jeff complained, although, as usual, he was completely ignored.  
"I can't believe Sir Douchebag actually made us come here. It's so stupid," Violet huffed, crossing her arms and pouting. Beside her, Lucy rolled her eyes, remembering the argument Violet and Jeff had had that morning, resulting in the use of Masky's 'nickname'.

* * *

 _"I said that I was gonna take a shower first!"_  
 _"Yeah, well you were taking too long to get in!"_  
 _"Was not, you were just too impatient!"_  
 _"Yeah, well I kind of lose my patience a bit when someone takes a freaking hour to get in the damn shower!"_  
 _"It was like twenty minutes!"_  
 _"It was thirty at least!"_  
 _Sighing heavily, Masky poked his head out from his room to see Violet and Jeff screaming at each other over who was taking a shower first. It was quite childish in his opinion, and made all the more silly by the fact that what neither of them had noticed was Ben going in to take a shower right behind them while they continued to argue._  
 _Stepping out into the hall, Masky crossed his arms, walking over to them. "Guys," he said, hoping to intervene before things got too out of hand, "stop bickering over the stupid shower. Just relax, alright? You guys need to get ready for school anyways, and you can always take a shower when you get back."_  
 _Violet shot him a glare, clearly not pleased with his butting in, and snapped, "Shut up, Sir Douchebag!"_  
 _"Wha-" he began to ask, a confused look coming across his face. He was interrupted, however, by Violet once again snapping his new nickname._  
 _"Sir Douchebag!"_  
 _"Where in the world did that come from?" he asked, completely bewildered. It was really random for her to start calling him that, and he couldn't say that he necessarily enjoyed it either._  
 _"I said, shut up, Sir Douchebag!"_  
 _"Wha-"_  
 _"Sir Douchebag!"_

* * *

Yeah... It was an interesting morning.  
"Just come on. We still gotta show you guys around before classes start," Lucas said, walking towards the building and turning to look at them over his shoulder, waving for them to follow. They did - albeit reluctantly - and soon everybody was inside, surrounded by a crowd of rowdy teenagers that smelled like a mixture of sweat, axe, and overly strong perfume.  
Lucy coughed, scowling. "How do you people freaking breath in this place?" Maybe it was because it had been so long since she went to high school herself, but she swore her school did not smell nearly this overwhelming.  
Shrugging, Sammy replied, "You get used to it," walking down the hall and towards her locker. "By the way, Natalie, Violet, and Jack, your lockers are all down this way with mine. Lucy, Jeff, and Toby, your lockers are down the other way with Lucas."  
Nodding, Clockwork followed her, Violet skipping along after them and E.J. bringing up the rear. Lucas then turned to the remaining three pastas, smiling brightly.  
"Alrighty," he said, "just follow me!" With that, he spun around, starting off in the opposite direction of Sammy and her group. Jeff, Lucy, and Toby all followed behind, keeping their mouths shut and simply looking around. Unlike Violet and E.J., they'd all been to high school before, but it had been quite awhile and none of them had attended that particular school, obviously, so it was an interesting experience for them.  
Looking back at them over his shoulder, Lucas pursed his lips, trying to think of something to say. He'd spent a lot of time with them over the past few days, but he still didn't really know them all too well and he thought it might be nice to try and become friends with them. So far, he hadn't had much luck considering that Lucy kept beating the lights out of him (he, like Jeff, seemed to have a natural talent for ticking her off), but he figured that he might as well try, right?  
Coming up with something to say, he was just opening his mouth to speak when a tall boy with red hair and a dusting of freckles walked by, slamming him into the lockers with his shoulder. Squeezing his eyes shut upon impact, Lucas let out a loud cry of pain, hearing a sickening CRACK come from his arm as it was crushed against the metal lockers. Then sliding down to the ground, he clutched his injured arm, wincing at the immense pain.  
Staring in surprise at the crippled Lucas, the pastas then turned their attention to the tall boy walking away from them, a satisfied smirk on his face. At first they did nothing, just taking a moment to let it sink in, before one of them then stepped forward, a dark aura practically emanating off of them as they approached the smirking boy.  
"You asshole!" Lucy shouted, obviously angered as her eyes narrowed and fists clenched. "What the fuck?! You fucking prick, who do you think you are?!"  
Turning to look at her in mild surprise, the boy then raised a brow at the blonde, eyeing her up and down before speaking. "What, are you pretty boy's new girlfriend or something?"  
Her glare darkened even more, if that was possible, and she practically spat at him, completely furious. "Fuck off. I'd sooner die than date a loser like him."  
"That's really offensive you know," Lucas managed to say through grit teeth, his voice strained. He was ignored, however, as Lucy and the boy continued their little showdown.  
The boy snorted, smirking a little. "Oh? Then I don't suppose you'd consider a guy like me, would yah?"  
This time, Lucy really did spit at him, getting him directly in the eye.  
"Ugh," he groaned, grabbing at his face and trying to rub his stinging eye. "You little bitch, I'll get you for that!" he threatened, growling angrily at her. That was when Jeff decided to step in, by now quite fed up with the redhead.  
"Hey, asshole, lay off!" he snapped, glaring at him. "You're being a major dickwad! Besides, I'm the only one allowed to call her a bitch!"  
There was an immediate sound of impact as Jeff was punched in the cheek, sending him sprawling across the hallway. Lucy, the one who hit him, glared fiercely at both boys, shouting, "Nobody is allowed to call me a bitch!"  
Jeff stared at her in bewilderment, holding his reddening cheek and snapping, "The fuck! I'm on your side!"  
"O-okay, okay," Toby said, stepping in. "Everybody just calm d-down. Let's t-talk it out, ok-kay?"  
The whole 'let's talk it out' idea didn't last long as only a moment later the redhead's fist collided with Toby's nose, sending the smaller boy stumbling back with a hand clapped to his face.  
"You fucker!" Lucy screamed, running at him only to be held back by an unknown person. It was only a moment later that the voice of their principle alerted her to exactly who it was.  
"All of you, my office, NOW!"

* * *

The redhead, Lucas, Lucy, Jeff, and Toby all sat in a line of chairs set before the principle's desk. The man sitting behind the desk, cheeks red in anger, glaring at them.  
"Now, explain yourself," he commanded, eyeing each in turn.  
Shifting uncomfortably in his seat, Lucas murmured, "Sorry, Principle Elliot. Lucy and Jeff were defending me, and things just got out of hand." He winced, rubbing his arm, tears burning his eyes. It hurt like hell...  
Principle Elliott looked at the brown haired boy, watching his clutch at his arm before waving a hand, saying, "Lucas, go to the nurse. You need to get that looked at. Mr. Rogers, you should go too. Your nose is still bleeding."  
Toby nodded, standing up while still holding a tissue under his nose, blood spilling onto the piece of fabricy paper. Together, him and Lucas left the office, heading for the nurse's. That just left Jeff, Lucy, and the redhead.  
Clasping his hands together, the principle looked between the three, who had been the real trouble in the hallway. Clearing his throat, he opened his mouth and began speaking to them. "Now, I want to know exactly what happened."  
Sitting up straighter in her chair, Lucy pointed over at the redhead, explaining, "We were just walking done the hallways and minding our own business when _he_ suddenly slammed Lucas into the lockers and hurry his arm. I got angry, and so I started to shout at him. We began to argue, and he said some rather inappropriate things. Jeff jumped in to try and help, and the three of us were all arguing. Toby attempted to calm everyone down, and then he punched him in the face and that's when you showed up. End of story."  
The principal looked over them again, asking, "Is this the story that is agreed upon?"  
Jeff and Lucy nodded while the redhead shook his head, exclaiming, "No! She completely left out the part where she was screaming obscenities at me or where she punched her own friend there in the face!"  
The principal looked over at Lucy, raising a brow. She just shrugged in reply, and he sighed heavily, pinching the bridge of his nose. He honestly didn't understand youth, he really didn't. "Alright, Lucy and Jeff, you may go. This is your first day, afterall, so I won't punish you, butt I will be calling home to your guardian tonight. Leone, as for you, you have an hour detention tomorrow after school. Don't miss it or you'll receive another one on top of that."  
Lucy and Jeff stood up, relieved at they wouldn't be in any trouble, although Masky would have a heart attack when he got that call. Turning, they walked towards the door, opening it to leave. Looking back over her shoulder, Lucy stuck her tongue out at the boy apparently named Leone, smirking before shutting the door behind them. Don't mess with a pasta.

* * *

It was lunchtime, and Violet walked into the cafeteria (after about three minutes spent searching for it) to find everybody already there. They all sat at a rather large, round table near the back of the cafeteria. The only reason she even knew where to find them was because of the familiar sound of Jeff yelping while Lucy hit him. Honestly, she loved him and all, but he really needed to learn not to tick the blonde off so much. One day she might just end up killing him.  
Walking over, she paused when she saw them, a deadpan look on her face. What... was... going... on?  
Lucas and Toby sat on either side of Clockwork, Lucas's arm in a cast and a bandage placed over Toby's nose. They both leaned against the girl while she patted their heads, speaking soothingly to them. Next to Lucas sat Sammy who was chatting enthusiastically to a completely silent E.J. who just nodded occasionally as he picked at his food, obviously pretending to listen. Then there was Lucy sitting next to him and currently resting her feet on Jeff's head as he lay on the ground beside the table, shouting curses at her which only resulted in her pressing down harder on his skull. Finally, there was a very bubbly looking blonde whom she didn't recognize running around laughing and talking. At the moment she was kneeling on the bench between E.J. and Lucy, poking at his cheek and going on about something.  
"Uh... hi..." Violet said, walking over with a somewhat confused look on her face. The only part of this that was normal was Lucy beating the snot out of Jeff. The rest was just... weird. And who the fluff was that short blond chick?  
"Oh, hey, Violet!" Sammy said, looking up and smiling at her. E.J. looked up as well, raising a hand in greeting. The little blonde next to him looked up, eyes curious as she stared at Violet. She then broke into a smile and leapt to her feet, running over and nearly tackling her into a hug. "Oh my gosh, hi! I'm Mia, it's nice to meet you! I've heard a bunch about you from Sammy and Lukey! Oh, I'm Sammy's best friend by the way, in case you didn't know, which you probably didn't, but now you do. Ooh, I love your shirt! Where'd you get it?"  
"Uh..." Violet trailed off, staring down at the short blonde with wide, surprised eyes. "Walmart..."  
"Awesome!" Mia chirped, grinning. She then proceeded to run back to the table, again sitting beside E.J. and beginning to talk his ear off. Good grief...  
Taking a seat beside Lucy, Violet looked down at the bruising Jeff, sighing. She supposed she shouldn't just let the blonde beat him up like that, as amusing as it was.  
"Come on, Jeff," she said, bending down and grabbing his arm, pulling him out from under Lucy's foot and up to his feet. "Sit down, and for god's sake, don't tick her off so much."  
"It's not my fault she's a sensitive, evil bitch," he muttered, sitting beside her and leaving her as a wall between himself and Lucy.  
"Would you stop calling me a bitch?!" Lucy exclaimed, glaring over at him.  
Sighing, Violet muttered, "You're not really helping your case." Jeff just shrugged, fixing his hoodie. Sighing again, Violet looked around, her eyes again landing on Clockwork comforting and injured Lucas and Toby. "So... what happened to those two?" she asked, pointing over at them.  
Looking where she was pointing, Sammy sighed, shaking her head. "Leone ... threw Lucas up against the lockers again, although he's never really done it that hard before. Apparently he sprained it, although it's not actually broken, so no worries. It'll only take a little while to heal. He also punched Toby in face, so his nose is broken. Natalie felt bad for them, so I guess she's decided to play mother here."  
Violet looked over at them, nodding. She did remind her of a mother right now. It was kind of like how Slender was with all of them. She looked down at her lap, suddenly feeling sad at the thought of Slender. What happened to him? Was he human too, or...? No, that wouldn't be possible. He was the most powerful of them all by far. There was no way he could be transformed against his will like that. Still, where was he? Was he looking for them? Was he worried? Or... did he already know what happened?  
"Violet?" Sammy called her name, drawing her back to attention.  
"Oh, sorry, I was spacing a little bit I guess," she laughed, rubbing the back of her neck sheepishly.  
"That's fine," Sammy replied, "I just wanted to see if you could help me drag Mia away from Jack before his ears explode. I think she might be overwhelming him a bit." She jutted a thumb over at the two, smiling apologetically.  
Looking over at E.J. and Mia, she saw that Mia was indeed beginning to overwhelm the quiet boy. He was staring down at his tray, sky blue eyes a little blank, and she swore that he was swaying a bit in his seat. Laughing, she got up, walking over and tapping Mia on the shoulder. "Uh, Mia," she said, smiling at her, "no offense, but I think he's going to pass out."  
Mia cocked her head, wondering what she meant, before looking over and noticing the rather dazed look on E.J.'s face. "Oh!" she exclaimed, running over and brushing his hair from his face, apologizing. "Sorry! I kind of talk a lot! You should have told me to shut up, silly! Oh, I'm sorry!"  
E.J. shook his head, smiling kindly. "It's fine. No worries. I'm used to it."  
' _What's that supposed to mean_?' Violet thought, crossing her arms and watching as Mia gasped, grinning widely.  
"You talked! Yes! Oh my gosh, you kind of sound like Cryaotic! You aren't Cry, are you?!"  
E.J. stared at her in confusion, asking, "Who?"  
Snorting, Jeff piped up, commenting, "Ben would kill you if he heard you say that, E.J."  
The older boy just rolled his eyes, ignoring the comment. His apologies if he wasn't a big gamer. That was Ben's deal, not his. Besides, he much preferred to read personally.  
"Okay, I'm being serious," Mia said, looking around. "Is he Cry or not?"

* * *

"Grandmama, we're back!" Sammy called out as she opened the front door to the inn, walking into the main lobby followed by Jeff, Violet, Toby, Clockwork, Lucy, E.J., and Lucas.  
"Do you have parents, or do you just live here?" Jeff asked, staring over at Lucas with a very deadpan look on his face.  
"Huh?" Lucas asked, looking over at him. "I have parents, why?"  
"Well you're always following us around so I was beginning to think you were abandoned or they were deadbeats or something. I've never once even seen you take out your phone to call them and tell them where you are."  
Lucas shrugged casually, replying, "Nah, I live my parents and they're not deadbeats. They just trust me enough that they don't feel the need to check up on me constantly. Besides, I pretty much spend all my time with Sammy and Mia anyways, and they know them pretty well, so they're okay with it."  
"Wow," Jeff dead panned. "That's one trusting pair of parents. I mean, you freaking sprained your arm today. Wouldn't the nurse have called them and informed them or something?"  
"Yeah, but they know I'm probably here at the inn, so they figure if I need anything Sammy and Gradmama can help," he replied with another shrug.  
"Does everyone call her Grandmama?" Violet butt in, following them into the common room.  
Lucas nodded. "Yep. Her real name's Elizabeth, but she just likes for everyone to call her Grandmama."  
"What a sweet lady," Violet commented, to which Lucas agreed with another 'Yep'.  
"Hey, you're back!" they heard the familiar voice of L.J., looking up to see him walking towards them with a grin.  
"Hi!" Sally called, following after him and coming running into the room. She immediately jumped onto Violet who lifted her up, holding the small girl in her arms.  
"How was your day?" she asked the little girl, prompting a smile from her.  
"Great! I made friends with this girl named Eveline, and she's really nice! She played with me at recess, and we had lots of fun!"  
Violet smiled, replying, "That's great! I'm glad you had fun!"  
"Mmhmm!" she hummed cheerfully, smiling brightly up at her.  
"Glad to see you all made it back in one piece," Masky said, entering the room. Upon seeing Toby and Lucas, he sighed, correcting his statement. " _Most_ of you in one piece."  
Toby chuckled, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly. This was the third time since they became humans that he managed to hurt himself in some way. The first was when he fell over holding Ben and hit his head against a rock, knocking himself out. The second was when Lucy knocked him out, and now he'd managed to get his nose broken. He was on a roll, that's for sure.  
"Oh dear," Grandmama said, a worried tone to her voice as she entered the room, rushing over to Lucas and Toby. "Now what on earth were you two doing? No matter, just don't let it happen again. Lucas, is your arm broken or sprained?"  
Lucas chuckled a little at the old woman's caring nature, replying, "Don't worry, Grandmama. It's only sprained. It'll be healed in no time at all."  
The woman nodded, still looking a little worried but not saying anymore about it. Turning away, she headed out towards the lobby and into the dining room, moving towards the kitchen. "I'm making some cookies if anyone wants one!"  
' _I do_!' a voice sounded in the heads of the pastas, surprising everyone but Masky, L.J., and Hoodie, who seemed to have appeared on the couch at some point within the last few minutes.  
Looking over at Smile Dog, Jeff cursed, exclaiming, "Shit, Smile, I forgot you talk in our heads! Warn me next time, will yah?!"  
' _Oh yes_ ,' the dog communicated sarcastically, staring up at him, ' _next time I will be sure to warn you I'm about to speak by telling you that I'm about to speak. Great plan, dumbass_.'  
"Shut up!" Jeff snapped, glaring at him. It was then that he heard an awkward cough, looking over to see Lucas, the one who coughed, and Sammy staring at him oddly.  
"So... I think I'm going to get heading home now... I'll, uh- I'll see you guys tomorrow," he said a bit awkwardly, heading towards the door. He left, leaving them all in silence. After a moment it was broken by the telephone ringing in the lobby.  
"I'll get it," Sammy said, running over, relieved to be able to leave the awkward tension of the room. Picking up the receiver, she said in a well practiced voice, "Hello, this is Samantha Greene at the Royal Heights Inn, how may I help you?" She listened for a moment before turning to look at the eavesdropping pastas in the next room, calling, "Tim, it's for you!"  
Masky tilted his head curiously, walking over and taking the phone from her. "Hello?"  
Sammy entered the room again, sitting down on the love seat with Violet and Sally and watching Ben mindlessly pet Smile Dog on the floor, looking quite bored. Everyone was kind of just laying around now, reading, chatting, or in Jeff's case, being frustrated yet again by L.J.'s obviously rigged game.  
Coming into the room with a steaming plate of cookies, Grandmama smiled, announcing, "Cookies are ready! Oh, where'd Lucas go?"  
"What?!" they heard Masky exclaim from the other room, looking over just in time to watch him fall over, passed out. He fainted.  
"Well, looks like he got that call about your fight," Sammy commented.  
"You owe me five bucks," Jeff said, holding out a hand towards Lucy who sighed, pulling a five out of her pocket and placing it in his palm.

* * *

 **A/N - This is late because I've been busy. (Whoever invented the SATs is cruuuuuel.) Hope you like it!**

 **crazy dragon ninja - Oh, true. That makes enough sense. X3**


	9. Chapter 9

Lucy sighed, rolling her eyes. Violet simply smiled, in a very cheerful mood at the moment. The two girls were walking back to the inn along with E.J., Toby, and Lucas. Clockwork stayed behind to help a teacher out with some cleaning, Sammy had track, and Jeff got a detention for cussing out a teacher in class. On the second day of school. Yep.

"There's this b-boy I sit next to-o in science, and he-he doesn't really talk mu-much. He kind of remi-minds me of you-ou, E.J., but he had bla-black hair and he's a lot sho-shorter. He's got lip p-piercings too and wears all-all black. I bet you'd l-like him, Lucy!" Toby was chattering on and on, skipping along down the road and blabbering on about some kid in his science class. He ticked his neck every few moments, stuttering his speech as usual. By now they were all used to it.

"Will someone please make him stop talking?" Lucy growled, rolling her eyes. She love Toby and all, they were like family after all, but sometimes he said the most careless things without thinking. He basically just called her dark and broody, although he wasn't exactly wrong...

"Speaking of piercings," Violet said, turning to Lucy, "do you ever miss yours?"

"Wait, wait, wait," Lucas said, stepping forward with a shocked look on his face. "You used to have piercings?!"

Lucy nodded, replying, "Yeah... I had a couple of them."

"Where?" he asked, raising a curious brow. He regretted that a moment later when she listed them all off.

"Let's see... tongue stud, bullring, bridge piercing, and dolphin bites, which is like snakebites but with two studs on each side rather than one."

He paled, staring wide eyed at her. "What... How could you do that?! And what happened to all the holes?!"

Lucy shrugged, replying with a small white lie. "They weren't in long, so they healed and closed up pretty quick. You can't really see the holes anymore if you let them close fast enough."

Lucas nodded, taking int he information before stating, "Well, I'm glad you took them out then. No offense, but I think you look way prettier without any facial piercings."

Lucy just glared at him, snapping, "Don't call me pretty, you liar! LIAR!" With that she then took off, running ahead of them and disappearing around the street corner. Lucas raised his uninjured arm as if to stop her, but it was no use. She was gone.

"What was that about?" he asked, completely bewildered, turning to look at the others.

Sighing, Violet chewed at her lip while Toby scratched the back of his neck. Finally, it was E.J. who spoke up, trying to find a way to explain it.

"Lucy is- uh, very sensitive about her looks, I guess you could say? She doesn't really... she doesn't like for people to call her pretty. She just always thinks they're lying. But if you tell her she isn't pretty then she'll likely kill you (literally) so it's really just best to avoid the subject all together."

Lucas shook his head, obviously amazed and confused at once. "That's... interesting. It doesn't make sense either. Why would she think they're always lying? She's probably the prettiest girl I know."

"Gee, thanks," Violet said sarcastically, rolling her eyes. Lucas just shot her an apologetic smile to which she just grunted in reply. "Come on. We should really get going before Mask- er, Tim gets upset."

* * *

It was the next morning, and it now being Saturday, the pastas were, of course, laying around doing what they do best. Yes, that's right- absolutely nothing.

"Knock, knock!" a familiar vocie called as the front door to the inn opened, Lucas poking his head in and looking around. Heading over to the common room, he leaned his good shoulder against the doorframe, watching them all silently from the threshold. "What's with you guys?" he asked, raising a brow and smirking a little. "Talk about a bunch of lazy bums."

Jeff looked up from the rubix cube he was currently frustrating himself over, eye twitching as he asked, "Care to repeat that, pretty boy?"

Lucas sighed, throwing his good arm into the air and asking, "Why does everybody call me that?!"

"Maybe it's because you're a pretty boy," Violet suggested with a shrug, not even looking up as she flipped the page in her magazine.

"I am not a pretty boy," he huffed, walking in and sitting down on the couch between E.J. and Sammy.

Sammy looked over replying a little slowly, "Yeah... you _kinda_ are."

"What the heck?!" he exclaimed, throwing his head back with a heavy sigh of exasperation. "It's not fair! I don't get how I'm a pretty boy. Like seriously, who made that decision?!"

"Well, you have short hair styled in that way where it kind of comes up a little bit, you know, like all those Tumblr guys. Then you wear dark blue skinnies, loose, thin teeshirts, expensive shoes, and you have a near perfect tan. Let's not forget the ocean blue eyes and charming smile. Seriously, you look like you belong on the cover of pretty boy magazine," Jeff listed off, snorting at the end and giving him a skeptical look.

"Is that even a thing?" Lucas asked, raising his head again to give him a 'what the...?' kind of look.

"If it is then you're subscribed to it," Violet said, again flipping a page in her magazine. Lucas just sighed again, collapsing back against the couch and slowly raising and dropping his head again and again, essentially hitting it against the soft cushion.

"Am I the only one weirded out by the fact that Jeff just said Lucas has ocean blue eyes and a charming smile?" Lucy asked, looking up from the book she was reading.

"I'm _not_ gay," Jeff said bluntly, glaring at her from across the room.

Lucy just shrugged, replying sing-songedly, "Whatever yah say~"

"Oh, trust me," Violet mumbled, again flipping the page in her magazine, "he is _not_ gay."

Lucy opened her mouth to ask what she meant when Toby suddenly looked up, a grin spreading across his face as he sang, "Is he gay or european~?"

"Oh, god no, not this song again!" Jeff groaned.

"What's that from...?" Sammy murmured, obviously just thinking aloud as she tilted her head a bit to stare at the ceiling in thought.

Walking into the room, Masky sighed, placing his hands on his hips and looking around before announcing, "Well, I got a job."

Everyone perked up, the big 'gay or european' question forgotten, and turned to look at him. "Wow, Tim, that's great!" Sammy exclaimed, a smile crossing her face.

"Yeah..." Lucy said a little slowly. Wasn't he supposed to be looking for a way to turn them back? Had he forgotten that they weren't actually human, or...? "Where are you working?"

Masky cleared his throat, looking rather proud as he announced, "The library. I'm an assistant librarian, which means free access to all books, records, and databases."

The pastas' eyes widened as they realized why he chose that. He had 24/7 access to all the knowledge he could possibly want including local records, archives, and free wifi. He could do all the research he wanted, no problem.

"That's pretty cool," Lucas spoke up. "This town may be small, but the library's really nice. Lots of money went into that place."

Sammy snorted, looking over at him. "Didn't your parents pay for half of it?" Lucas only replied with a small smirk that obviously meant yes.

"So when do you start?" Ben asked, looking up at him while still running his hand along Smile Dog's back, the dog awake now and watching them quietly, ears perked as he listened in.

"Monday," he replied, stretching his arms above his head. "I work week days, so while you guys are in school I'll be at the library. Hoodie's going to come too."

"What about L.J.?" Violet asked, finally looking up from her magazine.

"He'll be here with me, helping with the cooking and such," Grandmama said as she entered the room, obviously having overheard Violet's question. "I need some help around here when Sammy's at school, and if 'yall are gonna be living here for now then you might as well be helping around."

' _This is why I love being a dog_ ,' Smile Dog's voice echoed in their heads, _'I don't have to work. I get to sleep.'_

Jeff was smart enough not to reply this time, just rolling his eyes instead. God, he was beginning to love eyelids again. They enabled him to do so many great things. For one thing, his eyes weren't dry all the time. That was pretty awesome.

"Anyways," Sammy spoke up, looking over at Lucas with a bored expression, "why are you here? I don't recall inviting you."

He just snorted, replying, "Since when do you ever invite me over?"

"Never, that's kind of the point," she snapped, glaring at him.

"Hey, hey, no fighting now!" Grandmama repremended, walking past with a pile of sheets and shoving them into L.J.'s arms. "Take those upstairs to room 32, will yah, dearie?" L.J. grumbled, but upon receiving a sharp glare from the old woman, he complied, going up to do as she said.

"Somebody's whipped," Jeff snickered, chuckling under his breath and watching L.J. go up.

"Jeff," Violet snapped, back to reading her magazine, "behave."

"Yes, mam," he mumbled, looking down at the ground almost shamefully. Almost- there was still a scowl on his face.

Chuckling, Lucas raised an amused eyebrow, saying tauntingly, "Now who's whipped?"

"Lucas!" Sammy snapped, making him jump in his seat.

"S-sorry!" he whimpered, pulling his feet up in front of him and curling away from her like a shamed dog.

"Feet off the furniture!"

"Yes, mam!"

Lucy rolled her eyes, looking back down at her book and mumuring, "They're all whipped sons of bitches."

* * *

"Ugh... I'm dying to stab something," Jeff groaned, laying spread across his bed with his head hanging off the side, brown hair falling around him.

"Keep dying then. I'm fine with that," Lucy replied, flipping through her book from the armchair in the corner. She seemed to always be reading nowadays.

"Bitch," Jeff muttered, earning a book to the face in reply. Falling off the beed with a yelp, hitting his head, he stood back up, glaring at her and snapping, "Ow! What the hell?! That freaking hurt!"

"It was a hard cover, it was supposed to," she replied eith a shrug, staring at him blankly.

"Ugh- I'm going to kill you!" he threatened, raissing a fist in anger.

She snorted disbelievingly, prompting him to dive over the bed in an attempt to tackle her. That plan was quickly thwarted, however, when E.J. stood up, grabbing him by the hood and stopping him from going and further.

"Ah- hey!" Jeff snapped, wriggling about in an attempt to get free. It didn't help that E.J. was two years older and at least a foot taller than him. "Let me go, you bastard!"

"Don't tackle girls, Jeff," E.J. sighed, dropping him back onto the bed. The killer immediately scrambled to his feet, scowling at his brown haired face who just stared blankly back at him.

"The fuck, E.J.?! I get you have some sort of weird crush on her or whatever, but that doesn't mean you can go winging me around like a freaking doll!" he shouted angrily, fists clenched as he stood there, the bed bouncing slightly under his stomping foot.

Raising a brow, E.J. replied, "Where exactly did you get that idea from? Just because I'm closer to her than the rest of you doesn't mean I have a crush on her. And I didn't wing you around, I just picked you up and set you back on the bed."

Lucy piped up, adding, "If you keep stomping on the bed like that, Grandmama will come up here and wring you out to dry."

Jeff snorted, retorting, "I'd like to see her try."

An amused look crossed E.J.'s face as he nodded, saying, "Yeah, so would I."

Lucy laughed, declaring, "She'd kick your ass!"

"No she wouldn't!" Jeff snapped, glaring at her.

"I don't know. I get the feeling you shouldn't tick her off," E.J. said, raising a brow and allowing a tiny smile to cross his face.

Lucy gasped, getting to her feet and walking over to E.J., clamping his cheeks were her hands. "Oh my gosh, E.J. smiled! We have witnessed a miracle here, people!"

E.J. rolled his eyes, taking her wrists and gently pulling her hands away from his face. "Haha, very funny."

"I know, I'm a comical genius," she replied with a small laugh, saluting him playfully and causing him to roll his eyes again.

Jeff groaned, collapsing back on the bed. "Would you guys stop flirting? It's gross."

Lucy glared at him, snapping, "We're not flirting."

"Oh, suuuuuuure," he replied, rolling his eyes.

E.J. raised a brow, asking, "Oh, you mean like you and Violet?"

Jeff glared at him, not replying. That just made the older teen smirk, raising his hand for Lucy to high-five, which of course she did. Jeff again glared, getting more pissed off by the second.

"H-hey, guys! Dinner is rea-ready!" Toby called up the stairs, catching their attention.

Smirking, Lucy raised a brow, asking, "Race you guys down?"

Jeff returned the smirk, nodding. The three got ready to run, Lucy counting down till from three. "Three... two!" Both E.J. and Lucy took off running, racing out of the room and down the stairs. Jeff blinked, surprised, then scowled, chasing after them and complaining about them cheating. E.J. won the race.

* * *

 **A/N - This chapter is pretty short, so as a special treat I am uploading two chapters today! At some point I may put myself on a steady update schedule, but probably not. I'm too disorganized for that...  
**

 **crazy dragon ninja - I love that you're still posting reviews, that makes me so happy. I really enjoy reading your reviews each chapter. It brightens up my day a little. :) And I'm so glad it made you laugh! I try and make these chapters as humorous as possible, but I'm not always sure I succeed, so it's good to know I've had at least some success. X3**

 **Guest - I'm glad you like it so far! Here's another chapter. ;)**


	10. Chapter 10

Monday. Also known as hell itself condensed into one single word representing a particular day of the week. The most hated day of the week, to be more specific.

"Violet, get up," Lucy sighed, shaking her sleeping roommate. "We gotta go to school."

"Screw school," she murmured, burying her face further into her pillow and smacking her lips, sighing softly. "I just wanna sleep. Who needs algebra anyways?"

"Apparently, you do," Lucy snorted, shaking her harder. "Come on, just get up."

Violet turn over, replying, "No."

Growling, frustrated, Lucy grabbed the blankets, tugging them away from the sleeping teen and leaving her lying on the bare sheets in her fluffy, lavender pj pants and violet (pun intended) tank top. Violet shivered, rolling over again and crossing her arms over her chest, glaring at the blonde.

"You're getting up, whether you like it or not," Lucy snapped, grabbing the girl's ankles amd backing up, dragging her across the bed.

"Nooooooo..." Violet whined, clutching desperately at the sheets in a vain attempt to remain where she was. "I don't wanna..."

Lucy just rolled her eyes, tugging harder. Violet fell straight off the bed, shrieking in surprise. Glancing up through her tangled, curly brown hair, she glared at Lucy, huffing and blowing a strand of hair from her face. "Not... funny..."

"Really?" Lucy asked, raising a brow. "Because I thought it was hilarious."

Violet just shot her another glare, climbing to her feet. Moving over to her dresser, she pulled open the drawers, shooting one last comment over her shoulder. "I hate you."

"Love yah too," Lucy replied, grabbing her bag off the floor and slinging it over her shoulder.

* * *

"Alright, so you promise you won't get into any fights today?" Masky asked, tone a little worried. "I'm not going to get any calls from the school saying that one of you is staying after for punching someone in the nose or cursing out your teacher?"

"Hey, that was only one time!" Jeff snapped, glaring at the older man for bringing up his 'interesting' use of vocabulary towards his math teacher.

"And I was the o-one who got pu-punched," Toby grumbled, the bandage still adorning his nose.

"Knock knock!" they heard the cheerful voice they knew all too well coming from the front door of the inn. Poking his head in, Lucas grinned, seeing them all standing in the front hall. "Y'all ready to leave?" he asked, stepping fully in to reveal his still sling-bound arm and his black backpack carefully slung over his one good shoulder.

"Yeah, just about. Mas- Tim was just running us over the rules. Again," Lucy replied, glaring a little at said man. He just glared back, clearly not pleased with her tone.

"Eh, just let em go, Tim," L.J. said, entering the room with his usual smirk playing on his face. "Have a soul. They'll be fine."

Masky shot him a glare too, replying snappily, "I don't tell you to get a haircut so don't tell me to have a soul."

L.J. just snorted, rolling his eyes and muttering, "You basically just admitted to not having one." Again he recieved a glare, but no reply this time.

"Hey, girls, we done yet?" Lucy asked, raising a brow at them and folding her arms over his chest. They both turned to look at her, blinking.

"Why is it that you turned out the most crude of all of you? Couldn't you have just been some normal, sweet, friendly blonde girl like you're supposed to be?" Masky asked, shaking his head a little whilst still staring at her.

Shrugging, Lucy replied, "Where's the fun in that?" before turning and pushing past Lucas out the door. "I'm going to school."

Lucas blinked, watching her go, before looking back at everyone else, realization dawning on his face as he asked, "Hey, where's Sammy?"

"She's sick," Sally piped up, startling everyone and making them look down at her. Apparently, her and Ben had been standing beside E.J. the entire time.

"This is why I hate short people," Jeff muttered, only to recieve a sharp jab in the ribcage from Violet's elbow along with a matching glare. "Bitch..." he mumbled, yelping as he was again jabbed, even more sharply this time.

"Just... go," Masky sighed, covering his eyes with one hand and waving the other in a motion for them to leave. "Please..."

Everyone glanced at him before shrugging, turning and starting to leave. It was then that they realized Lucas had already disappeared at some point, but they didn't pay much mind to it, figuring he left before them.

* * *

"Leave me alone, Lucas," Lucy sighed, rolling her eyes as the brown-haired pretty boy followed after her.

"Aw, come on, Luce," he said, smiling playfully as he caught up to her, "I just wanna be friends."

Oh, if looks, could kill. "What did you just call me?"

He grinned as though he'd just executed the most hilarious joke of all time. "Luce. It's my new nickname for you. You like?"

"No," she deadpanned, staring ahead and crossing her arms.

"Luce..." he called teasingly, leaning towards her as they walked in an attempt to get her to look at him again.

"No," she said again, refusing to look over at him.

Only fuelled even more, Lucas spun around, walking backwards and grinning widely at her. "Luce~"

"Leave me alone~" she sung back, sighing heavily.

"No~" he replied, making her scoff and widening his grin even more.

Suddenly stopping, Lucy stood there, glaring at him as he stopped as well, staring back at her. "What do you want from me?" she demanded, glare darkening further. "Seriously, what is your problem?"

He shrugged, the grin dropping from his face. "I just wanna be friends. That's it."

She rolled her eyes, marching past him and snapping, "I don't have friends."

Furrowing his brows and jogging a little to catch up to her, he asked, "What about all your friends at the inn? Your... family, or whatever it is they are."

She shrugged, replying still rather snappishly, "They're just an annoying bunch of people I happen to live with and unfortunately know too much about."

He frowned, saying, "Come on, you must have at least one friend. Nobody is completely friendless."

Rolling her eyes, Lucy replied, "Fine. E.J. is my friend, and that's all I need."

Lucas paused in his tracks for a moment, snapping out of it after a few seconds and fastwalking to try and catch up to her again. "Oh, E.J., right," he said, rubbing the back of his neck. "I forgot you two are close..."

Turning to look at him as she walked, Lucy raised her brow. "Yeah... So...?"

"Oh, nothing," he replied, quickly shaking his head. She just gave him a skeptical look before shrugging, turning to look forward again.

"Whatever. Whatever goes through that brain of yours is none of my business," she said, picking up the pace and walking ahead, forcing Lucas to jog so he could catch up.

"Hey, wait up!" he called, trying to catch up to her.

"Go break another limb," she snapped.

He frowned, muttering, "It's sprained, not broken..."

"Whatever."

* * *

By the time the other pastas made it to school the bell for thestart of first period had already rung. Splitting up, they all went their seperate ways, running to class before they were counted as late.

Jogging into his science class just in time, Toby sighed in relief, glad that he made it. The teacher didn't look so impressed, but hey, he made it, right?

Walking to to back of the room, he dropped into his chair at a small lab table, setting his bag beside him and grinning briefly over at his lab partner, Caiden. He pretty much looked like your typical emo boy with black hair falling over one eye and snakebite lip rings. He was practically drowning in the black hoodie he wore, and he was far paler and thinner than was probably healthy. Even his dark blue skinny jeans sagged on him. Seeing the grin Toby had shot him, the boy simply rolled his eyes, ignoring him and turning up front instead. Toby just shrugged it off, listening in as the teacher began to explain their next project.

"For the remainder of this week and the next you will be working with your lab partner to construct and execute a hypothesis. You will be using the scientific method to go through with the procedures, and you can do anything you like for your experiment. Please keep in mind that you must gather the materials for yourself, so try to do something using materials you can find around your own homes. I'll be passing out a rubric now for you to follow so that you know how I will be grading you. This project accounts for fifty percent of your grades, so I suggest taking this seriously," Mrs. Pelletier said, walking around and passing out sheets of paper to each person. On the sheet was, of course, the rubric she'd mentioned.

"This loo-looks fun," Toby hummed, picking up the paper and scanning it over. Caiden just shrugged, not responding but glancing down at the paper sitting on the table before him with a bored expression.

Humming cheerfully, Toby read through it, easily ignoring the blank stare Caiden was giving him. "Hmmm, what should we do?" he asked, turning to look at the expressionless teen. Caiden just shrugged. Helpful.

Pursing his lip, Toby looked back down at the paper, thinking. What kind of projects did people usually do? Probably nothing involving fire or hacking people to bits he'd imagine...

"How a-about a potato battery?" he suddenly asked, looking up. "Ju-just a suggestion, but I-I heard they're kind of f-fun." Okay, honestly, he'd never known anyone who made a potato battery. His sister made a baking soda volcano for her school science fair once, but never a potato battery. That wasn't important though. Besides, what was Google for, right? And Lucas had showed him this awesome new thing called Siri on his iphone, so that works too.

Staring at him with his usual blank stare, Caiden said nothing, deep brown eyes just staring. Or was that glaring? It was hard to tell with that boy?

"No...?" Toby asked slowly, trailing off in uncertainty. The other boy just rolled his eyes, turning to face up front and completely ignoring him.

Sighing, Toby set his head down on the desk, turning away and staring off at the wall. Who knew making new friends was this hard?

* * *

Releasing a deep, stressed sigh, Masky ran his fingers through his curly brown hair, closing his eyes and trying to relax his stiff shoulders a little. He was so worried about what those numbskulls were doing at that school. Who knew what kind of trouble they could get into...

"Relax," Hoodie spoke up, rolling his eyes. "You're going to drive yourself to an early grave if you keep stressi out over them. I'm sure they'll be fine. I mean, hey, they've got Clockwor- er, Natalie with them, right?"

"That's the problem," Masky grumbled in response, "she's the only one I'm not worried about. The rest though..."

Hoodie just placed a hand on his shoulder, shaking his head and sighing. "Early grave," he repeated bfore releasing his shoulder again, walking past him. "Come on, you're gonna be late to work if we don't speed it up. Can't be late on your first day, now can you?"

Masky sighed, knowing he was right. "Yeah, yeah, I'm coming. Hold up."

Jogging after his friend, He caught up to him quickly and the two continued on their walk together to the library. In a matter of only a couple of minutes they were there, and Masky led the way in, heading up to the front desk so he could check in. Hoodie, meanwhile, had immediately wandered off to go look through the library and maybe try and see if he could find anything useful that might help them. That was why he was there, afterall.

Having checked in now, Masky took a cart of books (as per the librarian's request) and started to head around the library keeping his eyes on the rows of shelves to see which book went where. One in the romance section, one in fiction f-h, one in fantasy q-s, one in mystery, non-fiction, sci-fi, thriller, another in... Wait a minute. What was that?

Frowning, he stopped, staring up at the book that had caught his attention on the shelf just above him. He was in the mythology and folklore section of the library, a rather small section with only one or two rows of shelves. Honestly, it wasn't even a topic that much interested him, but the book he's noticed just jutting out of the shelf above him caught his attention very much so. Reaching up, he grabbed it, sliding it off of the shelf and bringing it down to look at it more properly. It was titled 'The Tall Man's Woods: Local and German Folklore of the Mysterious Tall Man'. On the front of the book was a black and white drawing of a being that ran his blood cold: Slenderman.

His breath caught in his throat as he stared wide-eyed at the cover of the small book. The Tall Man? German folklore? What was all this? He didn't get it. Why would there be an entire book here at the library all about Slenderman?

Snapping from his reverie, he slid the book onto the cart, continuing about his work. He wasn't really paying his task much mind, though, too occupied with thoughts of the book he'd just found. He doubted it would have any answers that they were looking for, but it was worth a shot, right? Who knew, maybe there would be something useful in there. Maybe...

* * *

 **A/N - Chapter 10. Hope you liked it, and don't forget to leave a review. :)**

 **?: Hey! Why wasn't I in this chapter?!**

 **Me: Mia, now is not the time for this...**

 **Mia: But I wasn't in the last chapter either! It's not fair, Lucas gets to be in every chapter and I've only shown up once! I am just as important as him!**

 **Me: That's because Lucas doesn't yell at me...**

 **Mia: Screw Lucas! And what about Cay-Cay, huh? He's important too, and yet you've hardly wrote about him at all!**

 **Me: Mia, you're not supposed to give things away!**

 **Mia: Oh... Oopsie... Hehe...?**

 **Me: . . . Just go back home, okay?**

 **Mia: Got it... Sorry...**


	11. Chapter 11

"Achoo!"

Sammy ran her sleeve over her reddened nose, sniffling loudly and sighing in exasperation. Why did she have to get sick? Honestly? She had a really big assignment due in school this week too. Oh well, she was sure that the teacher wouod guve her an extension. Honestly, the real thing that was bothering her wasn't so much that she was missing school but more that a certain person felt the irritating need to nurse her...

"Lucas," she sighed, watching the brown haired boy rush around the room, "you really don't need to take care of me. I'm fine. Besides, if I need anything I'll just ask my grandmother."

Shaking his head, he replied, "No, it's fine. I don't mind. Really, I don't. Besides, I don't want for Grandmama to have to go up and down the stairs so much to attend to you. She has to run the inn too, so I'll just help out instead. It's the least I can do."

Snorting, she muttered, "For what, annoying me?" Her comment went ignored, however, as he grabbed a glass of water and brought it over to her, setting it down on the sidetable next to her bed and sitting beside her, pressing the back of his palm to her forehead to check her temperature.

"You're burning up pretty bad," he murmured, frowning.

Groaning, she threw the blanket over herself, snapping, "Go get Natalie or something! Just get out of here!"

"But-" he started, but she quickly cut him off by shouting again, making him jump a little. "Alright, alright, I'll go get Natalie, sheesh!" he said quickly, hurriedly exiting the room. Closing the door behind him, he sighed, shaking his head. And he thought she was scary when she wasn't sick. Geez...

"Oh, hey, Lucas!" a cheerful, small voice greeted him, making him look down at the little brown-haired girl standing in front of him, a big grin on her face. She held her teddy bear in her arms and wore jean capris, sandals, a Minnie Mouse shirt, and her frozen backpack, probably having just gotten off the bus from school.

Smiling, he greeted her back, replying, "Hey, Sally. How was school?"

Grin broadening, she chirped, "Great! I had lots of fun!" Then dropping the smile to one of more curiousity, she asked, "How is Sammy? Is she feeling any better?"

Rememering how she'd practically chased him out of the room, he shuddered a little, shaking his head. "No, she's still pretty sick." Seeing the look of worry on her face, he then quickly added, "But don't worry, I'm sure she'll get better soon. She just needs to some good rest and then she'll be good as new."

Bright smile returning to her face, Sally nodded, happy again. Then placing a finger to her lips, she whispered, "Alright then, I'll be quiet so that she can rest and get better."

Nodding, Lucas placed his finger to his lips as well, watching the little girl release a small giggle. She then started tiptoing off down the hall, giggling quietly to herself and making him smile in amusement.

"Well, I see you're pretty good with kids, huh?" a voice asked kindly from behind him, surprising him a little. Turning to look over his shoulder, he saw Natalie smiling at him from the top of the staircase, sweet as ever.

"Oh, uh, yeah, I guess so. I'm an only child, but I always wanted younger siblings so I guess it just comes naturally to me," he laughed, rubbing the back of his neck. She nodded, still smiling.

"That's nice. Oh, how's your arm?" she asked, gesturing to his sprained and slung arm.

Looking down at it, nearly haven forgot about it, he replied, "Oh, it's fine. The doctor said I only have to wear it for another week."

She smiled, nodding. "That's good. You'll have to be more careful in the future to make sure that you don't hurt it again."

'Considering how much time I spend around you lot and the fact that I see that jerk Leone almost every day at school, I don't think that's likely,' he thought sourly, but smiled non the less, politely nodding to act as though he'd take those words to heart. Pft, yeah right.

Remembering something, Lucas perked up, saying, "Oh, I almost forgot! Sammy wanted you to go in and help her. I guess I was getting on her nerves or something." He shrugged, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly and chuckling innocently. Natalie just rolled her eyes playfully, smiling.

"Alright, I'll go check up on her. Thank you for telling me," she said, stepping past him and heading towards Sammy's room. Placing her hand on the doorknob, she looked over her shoulder, smiling and waving a little at the teen. "I'll talk to you later, kay?"

"Yeah, alright," he replied, waving back a little as she opened the door, stepping into Sammy's cave of despair and shutting the door behind her. God bless her soul.

Now alone (finally!), Lucas turned back towards the staircase, starting towards it. Walking quickly downstairs, he hopped off of the last step, looking around the front lobby of the inn. All was quiet. Now that he thought about it, it had seemed pretty quiet from upstairs too, and this old house didn't exactly have thick walls and floors.

Frowning, he crossed the lobby, poking his head into the common room to see if there was anyone in there. To his surprise, the only one in there was L.J. Oh, and Smile too, but he was sleeping and he was a dog, so...

"Uh, hey, L.J.," he said, stepping fully into the room and awkwardly standing before the older man. The black-haired male was just flipping through a magazine, though, completely ignoring him.

Frowning, not liking that he was being ignored, he coughed, clearing his throat unnecessarily loudly. L.J. sighed in response, looking up at him with a scolding glare.

"Yeah, I heard you the first time," he snapped, clearly not pleased at being disturbed.

Snorting, Lucas sat down on the couch across from the loveseat L.J. was currently seated on, sighing a little. "Well then next time acknowledge me."

Rolling his eyes to the ceiling, he seemed to think about it for a moment before shaking his head and looking back down at his magazine, replying, "Nah."

Groaning, frustrated, Lucas surged to his feet again, walking back out towards the lobby. "Whatever, I'm going to go find someone else to talk to."

"Good luck with that," L.J. mumbled, flipping the page in his magazine again to which Lucas simply responded by flipping him off and slamming the front door behind him. Snorting, he didn't even glance up as he muttered, "Spoiled brat." Seriously, that kid irritated the life outta him.

* * *

"What the heck, where is everyone?!"

Lucas groaned in frustration, running his hands through his hair. He couldn't find anybody to hang out with at all. Sammy was sick, Natalie was helping her, Sally was eight and going to her friend'd house, and L.J. was an ass. Oh, and Smile was a dog. Then there was everyone else who seemed to have disappeared off the face of the earth. What the hell?!

Kicking a nearby rock with his toe, he watched it skitter along the sidewalk, bouncing and clinking until it finally came to rest before a pair of black combat boots.

Furrowing his brows curiously, Lucas looked up, meeting a pair of cold blue eyes framed by long strands of shimmering brown hair. Blinking, he glanced the girl once over again, not recognizing her. Another new person to town maybe? She looked about his age but he's never seen her at school before, and this was a pretty small town so if she went to his school then he would recognize her.

"Uh, hi," he said, realizing that he had already made eye contact and it would therefore be extremely awkward not to say anything to her. Well, it was already pretty awkward, but still...

"Hi," she replied, giving him a skeptical look. God, he could have melted at that voice. Smooth and deep like rolling waters. Very elegant sounding.

"Uh, I'm Lucas. Nice to meet you," he introduced himself plotiely, clearing his throat a little and holding out a hand for her to shake. She took it, much to his relief, and he smiled brightly, trying to be as friendly as possible. Judging by the look on her face, she didn't buy it, but oh well.

"Jane," she responded, shaking his hand briefly before releasing it. "Nice to meet you as well. I just moved here."

"Oh really?" he said, smiling. "I have a couple of other friends who just moved here a little while ago as well. It's funny because people rarely move here. I guess we finally must have got put on the map or something, huh?" He laughed good-naturedly, an easy smile on his face. She just nodded, showing no apparent reaction to his joke.

"Yeah, I guess," she said, glancing around before meeting back with his eyes again. She didn't seem to be much of the friendly type... Then again, with Lucy around all the time he was kind of beginning to get used to that. Sammy and Violet had their moments too, and Mia... He didn't even want to think of her in a bad mood. Natalie and Sally were nice though. They were never mean, just sweet as sugar.

"So, um... Jane, right? I assume you'll be joining the high school soon, right?" he asked, trying to find some sort of topic of conversation. So far this wasn't really going anywhere and he was going to start feeling really awkward if he couldn't find something to talk about.

"Yeah, I guess. I'll probably join this week," Jane said a little dismissively, hardly glancing at him. She seemed to be really occupied in her thoughts...

Chewing at the inside of his cheek a little, no longer sure of what he could say, Lucas finally decided that maybe it was the time he ought to bail. "Well..." he began slowly, "it was very nice meeting you and it'd be great to see you again. Maybe in school? I'll, uh- I'll catch you later. Bye."

"Bye," she replied absent-mindedly, and he spun around on his heels, starting back off towards the inn again. That was... weird. She was weird. She may be drop-dead gorgeous with the most enticing voice he'd ever heard, but man did she give him the creeps. Something about that girl was just off. Really off. And honestly... he'd kind of like to figure out what that was.

* * *

"Cry! Cry! Cryyyyyyyyy! Sempai, notice me!"

Jack groaned softly, head nestled into the crook of his folded arm as he stared down at the floor beneath the table and silently prayed for the annoying girl beside him to just go away. He was sitting in the cafeteria after school waiting for Lucy and Jeff to get out of detention (again) and Mia hadn't left him alone at all. Violet was with them too, technically, but she had wandered off somewhere and hadn't come back yet, leaving him alone with the petite blonde beast known as Mia Johnson who for some weird reason was absolutely convinced he must be some Youtuber named Cryaotic and hence insisted on calling him so.

"Crrrryyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!"

"What?" he finally asked, looking up at her with a tired expression on his face. He so wasn't in the mood for this...

"Hi," she said, a big grin spreading across her face, and he swore in that moment he could have easily strangled her and taken out her kidneys. God, he may be patient but this girl irritated the hell outta him.

Groaning loudly, he dropped his head back into his arms, listening to her giggling gleefully, having successfully blown his brain cells to bits. One day... One day...

"Hey, guys! Sorry I took so long, but the vending machine wouldn't give me my snack," Violet said, coming back over to them with an Oreo ice cream bar in hand. She decided not to mention the fact that she literally shook, hit, screamed at, and may or may not have drop-kicked said vending machine in order to get it. Sitting down at the table across from a slowly suffering E.J., she tore open the plastic packaging, pushing out the chocolatey bar and taking a big bite out of it, revealing the vanilla ice cream in the center.

"Oh, I hate when that happens," Mia agreed, nodding her head in agreement. E.J. just let out a small grunt of acknowledgment to let them know he was listening.

"Ugh, how much longer do they have in detention?" Violet complained, leaning back in her chair. It felt like they'd been there forever.

"Uh... they've got an hour detention and we've been here for fifteen minutes, so... another forty-five minutes to go!" Mia said cheerfully after checking her phone. Violet and E.J. just groaned in unison, slouching even further in their chairs. Great... forty-five more minutes to go... Fantastic...

* * *

 **A/N - Another short chapter. Not really my favorite one either, but eh.**

 **I've never mentioned this, but on Wattpad these chapters actually have names. They're just too long for FF so I numbered them instead. On Wattpad, this chapter is called 'In Which Lucas Is Lonely and Violet Drop-Kicks a Vending Machine'.**

 **crazy dragon ninja - Really? Ooh, that's cool! I didn't know that! Though, it seems like a waste of lemons, and it'd probably be cheaper just to buy a charger, but that would be a cool science project. X3 And yes, all the plot stuff is happening. MWA HA HA. (Just wait until later chapters. Then things really take off. :3)**


	12. Chapter 12

"Guys!" Masky came bounding into the inn, frantically looking around for any of the other creepypastas. He found... L.J. on the couch reading People magazine and Smile Dog stretched out under the coffee table.

"Woah, where is everyone?" Hoodie asked, walking in with his hands shoved into his pockets and looking around. "This place is dead."

L.J. shrugged, not even bothering to look up from his 'Who Wore It Best?' spread. "I dunno. Lucas was here earlier but he left, thankfully. That brat was giving me a headache. I've got important things to do and he's too distracting."

Eyeing the ex-clown, Masky watched as he flipped another page in his magazine with skeptical eyes, nodding slowly. "Sure... Yeah, I see that what you are doing is very important indeed..."

"Exactly," L.J. agreed, either ignoring or just not noticing the obvious skepticism in his voice. Hoodie just rolled his eyes from where he stood in the doorway, playing with the bell hanging over the door by poking it and watching it move a little as it jingled softly.

"Anyways," Masky said, trying to get back on track with the conversation, "do you know where any of them are? I found something that may be really important to our investigation on our, um- 'transformation', and I need to make sure we've got everyone here to discuss it."

Hearing this, L.J. finally looked up, a suddenly serious look crossing his face as he met eyes with the man standing before him. "And what exactly is this really important thing you found?" Masky didn't reply, instead pulling out a book from his jacket and tossing it onto the coffee table. L.J.'s eyes immediately widened upon seeing the cover.

"Let's get everyone together."

* * *

"I can't fucking believe this. So this whole time the humans have known of our existence and we had no fucking idea?" Lucy was pacing back and forth across the floor of Masky's bedroom where they had all met up. It was very crowded but at the moment she didn't seem to care, just shoving right through people until she had cleared herself a sizable path and forced others to find somewhere else to sit or stand. "I never let a single victim get away, so how the fuck do they know?"

"Lucy, there wasn't anything about any of us," Masky reasoned, trying to calm her down some. "The book is only about Slenderman and it's also mythology, meaning that they don't actually believe it to be true. It's just a myth to them."

"Still," she argued, "doesn't it concern you in the least that they are aware of our world in any sense at all? That just brings them one step closer to actually figuring it all out!"

"Just calm down, alright?" E.J. stepped in now, placing a hand on her shoulder and forcing her to stop in her pacing. "They don't know we're real, and they're never going to either, so just relax a little. You're going to wear the floor down if you keep pacing like that."

Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes, nodding. From across the room Jeff glared of to the side, muttering, "If I had said something like that then she would have hit me for caring more about the floor than the problem at hand." He was immediately rewarded with a swift kick to the stomach.

"Woah!" Toby yelped, just barely managing to scramble out of the way in time so that Lucy's leg didn't catch him as well. "W-watch it!"

"Sorry, Toby," she said not very apologetically, shrugging her shoulders.

"Yeah, ye-yeah, wha-whatever," he muttered, glaring a little at her and carefully moving out of her kicking range just in case.

"You know," Natalie began, speaking up and bringing the conversation back to topic, "I think that Lucy might actually have some pretty real concerns. I mean, if humans are at least partially aware of Slenderman's existence, then wouldn't it make sense that they may be somewhat aware of our own as well?" Everyone went silent, seeming to seriously consider this piece of logic. None of them really wanted to admit it, but it did make sense. It wouldn't actually really be all that surprising if it turned out there was some information on them floating around and that most certainly wasn't a very comforting thought either.

"I don't like this," Ben sighed. "I really don't."

Masky nodded in agreement, mumbling, "Yeah, me neither."

* * *

It was about a week later when it began. The **_madness_**.

* * *

Something was wrong. Very wrong. She couldn't quite put her finger on it, but it was.

Sitting up in bed, Lucy turned her gaze to peer around the dark, quiet room. Violet was fast asleep in the other bed, her soft snores proving her lack of conciousness. The only light came through the thin curtains, casting soft moonlight into the room that gave everything it touched a gentle glow. The rest of the room was pitch dark, and the shadows from the light gave everything a rather eerie feeling. Lucy was never really one to be afraid of the dark - hell, she reveled in it - but in this moment... it felt as though it were her enemy. The dark was here to intimidate her and frighten her, and while she wasn't scared, she certainly didn't feel safe as she normally did when surrounded by the thick blanket of blackness.

' _Lucy._ '

She immediately stiffened, feeling an involuntary shiver run along her spine. She didn't know where that voice came from, but she didn't like it. It's not normal to hear voices, even for her. Some pastas may hear internal voices but she wasn't one of them. She never heard voices in her head. Ever.

' _Lucy, honey._ '

Shooting up from bed, she sat on her hands and knees on the mattress, blankets tangled and wrapped around her feet. Whipping her head about to try and see the entire room at once, she blinked her wide, electric blue eyes, trying to figure out where this voice was coming from. It wasn't in her head, right? She sure hoped not. She'd rather have a physical person she could just kill and dispose of rather than some voice in her head that she couldn't get rid of.

' _Sweetie. Lucy, honey._ '

"No, stop," she muttered, sitting up on her knees and clutching her hands to her ears.

' _Lucy._ '

"Stop it!" she shrieked, tugging at her blond hair and squeezing her eyes shut even tighter. She couldn't take it. This voice... This voice in her head was so familiar, she just couldn't take it. Why did she know this voice? Where from?

' _Lucy..._ '

Stop... Stop it...

' _Lucy, honey._ '

No... Go away... Stay away!

' _You're still pretty._ '

Lucy froze, eyes wide and teary, hands over her ears. She knew that line. She'd heard it before. That's why that voice was so familiar.

"... Mother."

A figure suddenly stepped from the shadows, standing before her and bending down so that their face was only inches from her own. Her eyes widened as the mess of brown hair and dilated blue eyes. The skin was rotting and the face so carved out and bloody it was hardly recognizable. What caught her attention the most, though, was the purple mark around her neck that had a distinct chain print to it.

"Hello, Lucy. I haven't seen you in forever, sweetie. Don't you miss me?" the thing said, it's voice choked and gurgled, blood dripping from it's lips. She just shook her head, backing away until she felt her back laying flat against the headboard. The thing just frowned, seemingly unpleased. "You didn't miss me? But I missed you, my precious daughter. I missed you so much."

"Stop it," she cried, tears slipping down her face. "Get away from me! You're supposed to be dead! You should be dead!"

"Oh?" the thing cocked its head, giving her a curious look. "That's right, I'd nearly forgotten." It moved closer, leaning towards her and grinning widely, blood falling from its mouth in gushes. "You killed me."

Flames suddenly broke out, engulfing the room in orange and red. Everything was on fire, burning heat searing at her skin. The thing laughed, and glancing over to the wall beside her bed, Lucy saw the words 'Don't you think I'm pretty?' sprawled across it in what appeared to be fresh blood, burning and sizzling in the extreme heat. The thing continued to laugh, the flames slowly licking up its body and burning at its skin, the smell of burning human flesh filling the room with its sickly scent.

Releasing a piercing scream, Lucy threw herself from the bed, running to the door despite the flames burning at her skin. Quickly casting her gaze over the burning room, she settled her eyes on the bed where Violet slept, screaming her name. There was no reply. Trying again, she still heard no reply and worry began to etch at her heart. That girl may annoy the shit out of her but she was still her... well, whatever she was. Taking a deep breath, she forced herself to run through the flames, pushing through to the girl's bedside and shaking her shoulder to try and awaken her from her sleep.

"Violet, you have to get up! The room is on fire! We have to go!" She didn't move. She just lay there on her stomach, blankets furled around her. "Violet!" she tried again, still receiving no reply. She wasn't waking up. Why wasn't she waking up? The room was freaking on fire! How heavy a sleeper was she?!

Impatient to get away, she decided to turn the girl over, thinking she'd just slap her awake. It was always a good plan b in her mind. However, upon seeing the wide eyes and crooked grin on the face of the girl, her own eyes widened as well. Her eyes were open, but somehow she didn't look awake. She looked... dead.

"Aw, Lucy, you look so pretty," she said in a doll-like voice, the skin from her cheeks peeling in the heat of the fire. "Pretty, pretty..."

Screaming again, realizing that there was definitely something wrong with her, she backed away from the bed, eyes locked onto the doll-like grin on her roommates face. Violet continued to mutter how pretty she was in that sickeningly sweet voice, staring unblinkingly at her as the skin peeled from her flesh, revealing red muscle and white bone underneath. Her entire body was decomposing in the heat, skin charred and flaking, yet that terrifying grin on her face didn't falter one bit. She just stared up at her with that horror movie expression.

Forcing herself to turn away, Lucy ran for the door, grabbing onto the burning metal knob without a second thought and instantly feeling the skin burn away on her palm as a result. Not caring, she attempted wrestling it open anyways, but was unable to get the knob to cooperate. Thinking fast, she instead slammed her shoulder against the wooden door over and over until it finally broke open, splintering at the hinges and sending small chips of wood flying everywhere. Pushing through, she broke into the hall, running as fast as she could. Behind her she could hear the sickly, gurgled laughter of that thing following after her, chasing her through the hall. She didn't dare to turn, though, for fear of actually seeing it.

"Lucy... My pretty little Lucy..." The voice seemed to echo through her mind, haunting her and filling her with terror like she'd never felt before.

"Get away from me! Stay away!" she screamed, running as fast as she could. Unable to see clearly through the searing flames and stinging tears filling her eyes, she ran blindly along the seemingly endless hall, the taunting cackle of that thing following her the whole way along.

Feeling her foot fall on air, she screamed as she felt herself suddenly falling. Hot air rushed past her face and she fell through space, her piercing scream breaking the thick air around her. In only a matter of moments, that to her felt much longer, she lay on her back on the floor at the base of the stairs, the flames around her licking at her skin and burning the flesh.

' _This feels so familiar..._ ' she thought, her eyes half-lidded as she watched the flames slowly begin to engulf her. ' _I've been here before. It's just like that night when I first met E.J., except this time he's not here to save me. I'm alone. I'm going to die._ '

Her sight started to flicker, and slowly allowing her lids to drop, she let her mind slip away, the flames fully engulfing her body and dragging her into unconciousness.

* * *

 **A/N - Cliffhanger~ :p**

 **crazy dragon ninja - Yup! Can't forget about Jane. :3**


	13. Chapter 13

"Lucy! Lucy, wake up! Lucy!"

Slowly blinking open her eyes, Lucy frowned, seeing a circle of familiar faces surrounding her vision. Man, everything was really blurry...

"Lucy, are you okay?" Clockwork asked, biting her lip in worry, straight brown hair falling around her as she placed her hands on her knees and bent over to get a closer look at the blonde lying on the floor.

"Uh..." she trailed off, not really sure. Seeing E.J. holding out his hand to her, she took it, letting him pull her up into a sitting position. Instantly she felt a surge of pain shoot through her skull and quickly reached up a hand to hold the side of her head. A nauseous feeling overtook her stomach, and rolling onto her side, she threw up on the floor beside her, gagging and choking as she vomited up the remains of the previous night's dinner. A hand laid gently on her back, lightly patting her in a comforting way as another one held her hair. It wasn't until after she'd finished puking her guts out that she looked up and saw it was E.J. patting her on the back while Clockwork held her hair so she wouldn't puke into it. She smiled weakly at the both of them, having to force the expression onto her face.

"Are you okay, Lucy?" Sally asked worriedly, standing on the bottom step of the stairs in her nightgown with her teddy bear held tightly in her arms. She just nodded, not really trusting herself to open her mouth in case something came out. She still felt like gagging and that foul taste in her mouth and the steady pounding in her head didn't help. "Ugh..." she groaned, hanging her head, Clockwork still holding her hair away from her face and E.J.'s hand now rubbing comforting circles into her back.

"What happened?" Hoody asked, crossing his arms and giving her a concerned look.

"Yeah," Violet jumped in, nodding her head. "I woke up to you screaming your head off and running out of the room. When I tried to go see what was wrong you started screaming again and took off down the hall. Then you just fell down the stairs and went unconcious."

' _What?_ ' she thought faintly. ' _That's not what happened. My mom was there, and Violet... Violet?!_ '

"Your skin!" Lucy suddenly leapt to her feet, ignoring the rush of blood going to her head as she stumbled over to Violet and grabbed at her, feeling her cheeks and staring intensely at her. "You're normal again. You're not a rotting corpse and your flesh isn't on fire." Then realizing something, she looked around, exclaiming, "Nothing is on fire! What happened to the fire? Nothing's even burned!" Reaching up her hands to feel her face, she frowned, feeling no scarred or burnt flesh there. They were smooth as a baby's bottom with the exception of maybe one little cut on her lip from falling down the stairs. "What is going on here?!"

"That's what we would like to know," Masky said slowly, leaning back against the wall next to the staircase and looking at her carefully. "What's wrong, Lucy? You seem really out of it. This isn't like you."

"I- I just- I mean... I don't even know," she blurted out, trying to form a coherent sentence and greatly failing.

"Jeez, you look like you saw a ghost," Jeff snorted and she swore she almost threw up again, clapping a hand over her mouth to keep from gagging. He gave her a weird look but she shook her head and he just shrugged, saying nothing.

Hearing a shuffling from up the stairs, they looked up to see Grandmama coming down in her slippers and nightgown, a worried look on her face.

"Lucy, sweetie, are you alright?" she asked, rushing down and taking her hand between hers.

'Lucy, sweetie.'

The blonde shuddered, turning and throwing up onto the floor again, unable to hold it back. E.J. just began to rub her back again as Clockwork held her hair from her face and Grandmama cooed pityingly.

"Oh, you poor dear," she murmured. "Come, let's get you to bed. Let's go. Come on." Taking the girl's arm, she gently began to lead her back upstairs, Sally stepping aside to let them through.

"I wonder what happened," Ben murmured behind them, Jeff shrugging in reply.

"Something's definitely wrong..." Masky said, rubbing his chin thoughtfully and watching as Grandmama lead Lucy away. "I have a really bad feeling about this..."

* * *

Lucy didn't go to school the next day. Instead, she stayed home with Sammy, Grandmama, Smile Dog, and L.J. She had attempted to go, but Grandmama wouldn't even let her out of bed. The moment she went to stand up the old woman shoved her right back down, arguing that she may have a concussion from her fall and needed to stay in bed until she could go to see the doctor. Apparently, this town was so small they only had one local doctor. That's not sketchy at all. Totally reassuring.

Either way, long story short, Lucy did not attend school that day.

"Ugh... This sucks..." Lucas groaned, throwing his head back dramatically.

"I get that you don't want to be here, but can you keep it down? I'm trying to hear myself think," Jeff said, glaring over at him.

"But it's not fair," he whined. "Both Sammy and Lucy are sick. What am I supposed to do without someone to talk to?"

"What are we, chopped liver?!" Mia exclaimed, jumping up from her seat.

"What does that expression even mean, exactly...?" E.J. muttered. In his opinion chopped kidney would be so much better. The liver was too tainted and disgusting. Then again, that might have been the point...

Currently, the entire gang (minus Sammy and Lucy, obviously) sat around a table in the cafeteria. It was lunchtime but no one was really eating considering that the food the school provided looked suspiciously unsafe to eat. If their was such a thing as a poisonous chicken burger (and they were relatively sure there was) then that was exactly what was on their trays. Or... Was that supposed to be a regular burger? Sloppy joe? Who cares- they weren't eating it.

"You are so freaking whipped. You can't even go ten minutes without talking to Sammy. She broke up with you for a reason, you know," Mia said, leaning over and sticking her fork into the pile of cinnamon apples (or pears...?) on E.J.'s tray before sticking it in her mouth.

"Yeah, because she thought I was too clingy," he said, leaning back in his chair, "which is ridiculous, because I'm not."

Jeff snorted, muttering, "Yeah, right... Not clingy, that's funny." Lucas glared at him, having heard what he said, but he didn't acknowledge the look, just pointedly ignoring him instead.

"Is it just me, or did the food here get worse?" Violet suddenly spoke up, making a face as she slowly chewed at a bite of whatever that meat sandwich was made of, fork in hand. Yes, she ate it with a fork. She was honestly afraid that if she didn't first stab it with something then it might begin to move across the plate.

Mia snorted, saying, "That's saying something considering you've only been here a couple of weeks too." Violet nodded in agreement before making another face and grabbing her napkin, spitting the chewed food into it and folding it up, setting it back on her tray with a disgusted look. Pushing the tray over the table and into the trashcan at the end, she watched it fall in, tray and all, before reaching into the bag at her feet and pulling out a bag of candy, starting to chew on those instead.

Jeff laughed, watching Violet's little display. "No good?" he asked in amusement, watching her stick her tongue out and make another face before they both burst out laughing.

"I think it ta-tastes fine," Toby said, shrugging his shoulders and biting into the sandwich while Clockwork watched nervously from beside him, looking like she was about ready to knock the toxic food right from his hand.

"Can someone tell me why I'm here again?" Caiden spoke up from his seat on the other side of Toby. Honestly, no one had even noticed he was sitting there the whole time.

"Be-because you're my frie-friend," Toby said, taking another bite without noticing the way Clockwork cringed beside him.

Caiden slowly turned to look at him, speaking in a very deadpan voice. "You dragged me here. You literally grabbed me by the arm when you passed me in the hallway and dragged me here. I'm supposed to be in History right now."

Toby just shrugged, replying, "History's in the past anyways." Caiden rolled his eyes but didn't reply that time, sighing and folding his arms on the table, setting his head down.

"Aw, cheer up, Cay-Cay. We're just trying to be friendly," Mia said, reaching across the table (having to stand in order to do so due to her short stature) and patting him on the back.

Slowly raising his head to glare at the cheerful blonde, he slowly asked, "What... The fuck... Did you just... Call me...?"

Tilting her head a little to the side, she replied innocently, "What, Cay-Cay? It's my new nickname for you."

Growling, he spat, "Don't you ever fucking call me that again."

"Why not?" she asked, clearly not understanding his anger. Frustrated, he stood up, his chair shooting back and skidding over the floor.

"Why do you people keep acting like you're my friends?! I don't even fucking know half of your goddamn names and yet you seem to insist on dragging me around and calling me nicknames!"

"Hey, that's Toby and Mia. Don't bunch us in with them," Jeff said, folding his arms. Caiden just groaned again, running a hand through his black hair.

"Just leave me the fuck alone!" he shouted, turning and storming off across the cafeteria. Slamming the doors open, he exited out into the hall, leaving them all staring at the closing red doors.

"Well then..." Violet murmured with a mouth full of candy, still staring along with everyone else at the now closed doors.

Giving her a weird look, Clockwork asked, "Where did you even get that candy?" 'L.J.' was Violet's simple reply.

"I thi-think I might hav-have made him m-mad," Toby said, biting his lip worriedly. "I-I didn't mean to..."

"It's okay, Toby," Violet said, reaching over Clockwork to place her hand on the boy's shoulder. "We know. We know."

The bell rang then, catching all of their attentions. Standing up first, Lucas sighed, throwing his bag over his shoulder. "I'll see you guys later," he said, and they all watched as he walked off first, shoving his hands into his pockets as he went.

"Poor boy," Mia sighed, shaking her head sadly. "Still can't get over Sammy. He's a sweet boy but he just isn't the one for her. I wish he'd understand that."

E.J. also watched as he left, cheek placed in the palm of his hand as he narrowed his eyes. "I don't think that's all that's bothering him," he murmured quietly, no one but Mia (who, as usual, sat beside him) hearing. She glanced over at him with a somewhat quizzical look, but didn't ask, instead standing up and beginning to get together her things.

"Come on," she said, pulling the straps of her bag over her shoulders. "We should probably get to class." Everyone else agreed as well, getting together all their things before heading out of the cafeteria and splitting ways to go to their own classes.

* * *

It was the end of the day and Jeff was innocently walking through the hallway when he was suddenly grabbed by the arm and yanked into a random classroom. Yelping in surprise, he stumbled into the room, narrowly avoiding ramming straight into a desk.

"Hey, what the fuck-!" he started to shout before he saw who had pulled him in and his expression turned from one of anger to one of confusion. "E.J...?"

The brown-haired boy put a finger to his lips to tell him to be quiet before gesturing for him to come closer. Jeff was reluctant, but he did eventually move closer and E.J. began to speak to him in a hushed voice.

"Listen, I'm sure you know this, but I am well aware of your relationship, and if you would like me not to tell everyone else about it then you're going to do me a favor."

Jeff's eyes widened and he stared in shock at his best friend. "Are you... Are you blackmailing me?!" E.J. stared at him blankly before nodding. This was insane.

"Yes, I am blackmailing you. Keep up. Now do we have an agreement or not?"

Jeff just shook his head slowly, saying, "You've been spending way too much time with Lucy. She's beginning to rub off on you." Sighing, he then nodded, asking, "Fine, what do I have to do?"

* * *

Knocking lightly on Sammy's bedroom door, Lucas cracked it open, popping his head in and smiling. "Honey, I'm home," he said, waving a little. He was answered with a swift pillow to the face and a shout to go away. Closing the door, he then turned and walked further down the hall, knocking on Lucy's door instead. "Hey, Lucy. I came to visit," he said, opening the door a little again. What he found inside was an exhausted Lucy lying face down on her bed with the pillows and blankets thrown everywhere.

"Go the fuck away," she muttered, not even lifting her head from the pillows. Pausing, he considered obeying her demand before deciding that no pillow to the face meant she wasn't in a violent mood. He could deal with a pissed off girl who was too tired to be violent, just not one who still had enough energy to huck pillows at his face.

Sitting down on the edge of her bed, he placed a hand on her back, slowly rubbing circles over the fabric of her shirt. "You okay?" he asked, keeping his voice quiet in case she had a headache.

"No," she grumbled, shifting a little before lying still again, face still in the pillows. "My head is killing me and Grandmama won't let me even leave the room. I'm bored out of my mind."

Lucas nodded in understanding, humming a little in sympathy. Sammy had been complaining about the same thing for the last couple of days. Well, when she wasn't screaming at him to go away that is.

"Oh, hey," he said, remembering something. "I got you all the notes and work you missed from all your classes today. I've got them in my bag downstairs if you want them."

Finally looking up at him through her tangle of blond hair, she stared at him, seemingly surprised. "Lucas, I don't have a single class with you. How did you get all my work?"

Shrugging, he replied, "I just went and asked all your teachers. I told them you were sick. I figured you might not want anyone to know about your stair mishap." She chuckled a bit before realizing something and giving him an odd look. Catching her thought process, he added a little sheepishly, "I, um, kind of memorized your schedule..." He looked off to the side, scratching the side of his nose a little.

Laughing loudly, Lucy shook her head, saying, "Stalkerish- I can appreciate that." He just smiled, laughing a little too.

"Hey, I'll go get that work for you. It's not all that fun, but at least it's something for you to do." Standing up, he started towards the door. "I'll be right back." She nodded and he left, carefully closing the door behind him so it didn't make too much noise. Turning, he then shrieked in surprise when he immediately came face to face with Jeff.

"We need to talk," he hissed, grabbing Lucas by the arm and pulling him towards the room he and E.J. shared. Shutting the door behind them, he then turned to look at him with narrowed eyes, making the teen feel rather uncomfortable. Continuing to stare, he then blurted out four words that Lucas hadn't thought he would say, "Stay away from Lucy."

Blinking in surprise, he managed out a small, "What?"

"You heard what I said." Jeff repeated, "Stay away from Lucy."

"Why?" It didn't really make sense to him why Jeff would be saying this to him. Him and Lucy were friends. Why was that a problem?

Glaring at him, irritated that he didn't just blindly accept his command, he snapped, "Just stay away from her, alright?"

Lucas went silent a minute, not sure what to say. It really, honestly didn't make much sense why Jeff would be trying to ward him off from Lucy. Unless... Jeff didn't like her, did he? That couldn't be it. No way did he like her. Those two were always fighting and being mean to each other and... Oh. Oh. Wasn't there this thing about how guys pick on girls they like? Shit...

Now glaring at the brown-haired boy, Lucas snapped back at him, suddenly defensive. "I'm going to talk to Lucy if I want to. She's my friend whether you like it or not and you're not going to change that. So you. Can go. To hell."

Jeff's eyes widened a fraction for a couple of seconds before narrowing into a glare as his lip curled back into a scowl. "You little fucker..." He suddenly lunged forward, grabbing Lucas's arm and sending his other fist flying at his face. Lucas barely had time to even process what was happening before Jeff's fist connected with his jaw and sent him stumbling back. Reaching up a hand, he tentatively touched his lip, staring wide-eyed down at the blood that coated his fingertips. Then turning to look at a pissed off Jeff, he suddenly felt all the adrenaline rush through him and hit him back, knocking him back into the bed behind him.

Soon there was a full on fist fight happening in the room, and both boys were shouting and cursing as they beat into each other. Jeff was by far the stronger of the two, as well as the more skilled (for obvious reasons), and so Lucas was having a hard time just barely keeping up with his hits, let alone throwing his own. Still, he managed to hold his own at least for a little while.

Hearing all the commotion from downstairs, Masky ran upstairs followed by L.J. and Violet. The door was thrown open and immediately both men jumped at the boys, pulling them apart and forcing them away from one another while Violet stood watching from the doorway, wringing her hands in worry.

"Stop it!" Masky commanded, tugging hard at Lucas's shoulders to keep him back. "Stop this right now!"

"I'm going to fucking kill him!" Jeff shouted, trying again to lunge at the other boy but failing due to L.J.'s strong arms holding him back.

"Jeff!" Violet suddenly shouted, briefly catching everyone's attention with her loud, angry, demanding tone. "Stop right this second or I swear to God I will fucking kill you! Your fighting is absolutely pointless and in case you forgot there are two girls just down the hall who are in severe need of rest and you are not helping their condition in the slightest!"

Both boys went silent, finally stopping their struggling and just standing still. L.J. and Masky reluctantly let go of them, and they did nothing for about a whole second before Jeff suddenly lunged at Lucas again, going to hit him in the face. He was quickly stopped, however, by a swift hit over the head by L.J. Dropping to the bed beside him, he lay unconcious, not moving. Everyone else just stared down at him for a moment before Masky turned a fierce glare onto Lucas, speaking only one single word. "Explain."

* * *

 **A/N - Stuffs and things are happening. Leave a review.**

 **crazy dragon ninja - That would be hilarious! Something like that actually will happen in a few chapters, so you're not far off. ;)**


	14. Chapter 14

"Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Dammit, Woman- OW!"

Violet marched through the inn, dragging Jeff and Lucas by their ears behind her. Jeff was cursing and yelling the whole way while Lucas simply grimaced and whispered small, indecipherable words of pain. Masky and L.J. were following behind the trio, Masky's arms crossed over his chest and L.J.'s hands shoved into his pockets. They looked about as pleased as Violet did.

Shoving the two boys into the kitchen, Violet placed her hands on her hips, glaring at them. Her blue eyes narrowed as she stared them both down, a slight scowl adorning her face. "Now, if you two are done sissy fighting will you please explain to me what started this in the first place?" Both boys remained silent and her glare worsened, her eye twitching in irritation. "Answer me!"

"He was trying to ward me off of Lucy," Lucas blurted out, speaking quickly so as to get it over with. Violet turned her gaze onto him, eyes lighting up a little bit.

"Alrighty then, finally someone talks! Now, Jeff, why were you warding him off of Lucy exactly?" She now turned a skeptic eye on the long-haired teen, her gaze and tone giving no leeway for him to escape. At first he attempted to ignore her, not replying, but with a twist of his earlobe he was ready to talk.

"Ow, ow, ow! Let go of me!" he shouted, face scrunching up in pain as Violet continued to slowly twist his ear. Releasing him, she then placed her hands on her hips, waving her hands in a gesture for him to continue to talking. Standing straight again, he took a deep breath, rubbing at his red and very sore earlobe with a sour expression on his face. "Alright, alright. Jeez. Don't rip my freaking ear off."

Violet gave him a hard look and he nodded, saying, "Fine, Fine, if you must know, E.J. threatened me to. He blackmailed me into warding Lucas off. I don't know why, but he did. Happy?"

"Not really..." Violet murmured, chewing on her thumb. "Why would E.J...?" Snapping back to the matter at hand, she said, "Anyways, no more fighting you two, got it?" They both nodded, agreeing almost too quickly, making her narrow her eyes.

"You two can go," Masky sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose between his forefinger and thumb. Both boys immediately took the opportunity to run, taking off out of the kitchen. Where in the world they were headed was a total mystery, especially when one didn't even live there, but they weren't too concerned with that.

It was silent for a few moments as the three remaining pastas stood together in the kitchen, each occupied with their own thoughts. Finally, it was L.J. who spoke up. "We're getting too attached."

Violet frowned, asking, "What do you mean?"

A sigh escaped his throat as he folded his arms over his chest, replying, "We're spending too much time with these humans. We're starting to get attached. I mean, E.J. and Jeff are warding Lucas off? We wouldn't even have to be doing that if the boy didn't get so close to us in the first place! Same with Sammy and all these other freaking humans! We're getting too close to them, I'm telling you! We've been human for far too long!"

"Oh yeah, and look who's talking!" Violet snapped. "You bend to grandmama's will like you're her fucking slave!"

"Alright, alright, stop it," Masky snapped, sighing heavily. He was not in the mood to deal with this right now. "L.J. makes a good point. We have been in these human forms for far too long now. If this keeps going then we might just actually begin to want to stay like this."

"Don't you?" Violet asked, eyes snapping to his.

Frowning, Masky looked up at her, asking, "What do you mean?"

"Well..." she looked away. "None of us exactly chose to be what we are, right? It wasn't up to us. So why are we trying so hard to get back to something we never intended to be in the first place?"

It went silent after that. For the most part, she was right. None of them had chosen the lives they had. Right now, they were in many ways being given a new one. A second chance. And yet, here they were, thinking of ways to throw it away.

"Why are we doing this?" Violet murmured.

"You've gone soft," L.J. snapped, bringing their attention back to him. "Why are we doing this? Because we don't belong here. We're not humans, we're monsters. It's who we are and to just let that change... it's just wrong." He shot her a glare before turning and walking off, leaving the kitchen in a huff.

"Jeez, what's his problem?" Violet muttered, pouting and crossing her arms over her chest.

Masky just sighed, rubbing his temples. "I'm getting too old for this..."

* * *

It was later that night and Grandmama had finally managed to convince Masky that Lucy needed to go to the hospital. So, with an anxious Lucas, a concerned E.J., and a bored Violet on their tail, the two took the young blonde to their local hospital, a small facility building with maybe one actual doctor and a couple of nurses. They were working on expanding the building (courtesy of the Carhartt family) but it was still under construction, so for the moment the capabilities of the small building were rather limited. They could, however, check for and treat any possible concussion Lucy might have concocted from falling down those stairs.

Entering the sickeningly bleach white building, the group of six headed over to the front desk, checking in with the receptionist who told them that the doctor would be with them soon. Taking their seats in the waiting room, then, they all waited quietly, no one saying a word. Not course, neither Lucy nor Masky had any serious concerns regarding her health, and even E.J. and Violet weren't all too worried. Really, the only ones who were even taking this seriously were the two actual humans. Go figure.

"The doctor will see you now," a young woman said, sending them a plastic smile as she stepped out from an attached hallway with a clipboard in her hands, brown hair pulled into a tight bun and white uniform spotless.

"Alright, thank you," Grandmama said, smiling back and standing up from her seat in one of the plastic, cushioned chairs. "Come on," she said, turning and waving everyone up, "let's go. I'm sure the doctor is very busy and doesn't have time for any lolligagging."

Lucy raised a brow, giving the old woman a look behind her back. ' _Seriously? Does this place look busy to you? And who says lolligagging? I mean, really._ ' Then sighing, she stood up, following Grandmama and Masky into the hall after the nurse. The other three went to follow before being stopped by the receptionist, told they had to wait out there. They weren't too pleased about that, but obeyed anyhow, retaking their seats.

"This sucks..." Lucas muttered, resting his cheek on his fist, elbow on the arm of the chair, and anxiously tapping his foot against the tile floor.

"Would you stop that? You're making me feel anxious," Violet snapped, blue eyes glaring at him. She was still in a bit of a foul mood from earlier that day and neither boy sitting there with her was exactly on her good side at the moment.

"This is stupid..." E.J. sighed, folding his arms and slouching in his chair.

Growling in frustration, sick of the torrent of pessimism surrounding her, Violet stood up, strutting across the waiting room with her fists clenched by her sides. This caught the attention of the two sulking boys, making them look up at her.

"Hey, where yah going?" Lucas asked, frowning.

Not bothering to stop or even turn around to look at them, Violet shouted, "I'm taking a walk!" Then with that she left off down a hallway, aimlessly strolling through the small hospital with no clue whatsoever of where she was going.

"Stupid guys..." she muttered, storming down the hallway, not paying any attention to her surroundings. "Always one thing if not another. And people say girls are dramatic. Sheesh..."

Suddenly hearing the clicking of heels, Violet stopped, frowning. It wasn't like a woman's heels but the kind you'd find on men's dress shoes or something, by the sounds of it. Heavier and more of a thud really than a click. Turning, she looked down the hall but saw nothing. No one was there. Weird...

Shrugging it off, she began to move again when the clicking started up again. She stopped. The clicking stopped. Turning around, she again saw nothing, and narrowed her eyes in suspicion. "Hello?" she called. "Is someone there?" No reply, of course.

Turning forward again, Violet took a deep breath, slowly starting to walk again. The clicking started. She sped up. The clicking sped up. She went faster. So didn't the clicking. She came to a sudden stop. The clicking did too.

"What the hell...?" she whispered, turning to peer over her shoulder again. Still, there was no one there. What was going on?

Just then the lights began to flicker, dimming from a brilliant white to low glow as it switched back and forth from a total black. Gasping in surprise, Violet swung around, frantically looking up and down both sides of the hall. It was pitch black on either end and there didn't appear to be a soul in sight. What on earth was happening?

"Hello?!" she called again, louder than before. "Please, is someone there?!" There was reply, and as she stood looking around her she began to again hear the thud click of heels. "This isn't funny!" she yelled, spinning about as she tried to determine which direction the sound was coming from. "Nobody's laughing!"

As she had spoken a deep, quiet chuckling began, the footsteps coming to a halt. The laughter grew steadily louder and more insane until it was practically manic, echoing along the hall and vibrating in her ears, forcing her to cover them with her hands just because of the sheer volume.

"Hello..." the voice spoke, deep, rumbling, echoing, "... experiment 906609."

Violet's eyes widened, flashes of these... visions... playing through her head. The man's voice seemed to each in her brain, replaying over and over. 'Experiment 906609... Experiment 906609... Experiment 906609...'

Slowly turning, hands still cupped over her ears, Violet set wide, blue eyes on the other end of the ha. There, just in the shadows stood a man, his face dark but appearance clear. His bleach white labcoat stuck out, glasses shining in the dim light, reflective. A wide grin spread across his face as he stared at her, a needle held in one hand, dripping with some unknown clear liquid. "We've been waiting for you."

Screaming, Violet took off down the other end of the hall, the man's laughter following him the entire way. What was his name again? Dr... Zane? Zenith? Zachary? Zander. Dr. Zander was his name.

Running along seemingly endless halls, turning here and there, Violet wondered where on earth she was. The hospital was tiny, so where had all the halls come from, and why we're they all so dim, the lights flickering? It was like something straight out of a horror movie.

"It's time for your pills, 906609..." Dr. Zander's voice reached her ears, though she had no idea where he was. All she knew was that she didn't care to find out.

"Leave me alone!" she screamed, tears welling in her eyes. Terror and confusion filled her as she raced through the darkened hospital, up and down endless corridors of fear. No matter which way she turned all she found was yet another long hall, no doors or exits visible in any of them. How any of this was even possible she had no idea, but she had to get away. She had to. She just did.

Turning down another hall, Violet paused, seeing a single door down at the end. It was probably a dead end, but it could also be an exit. Hearing the approaching footsteps behind her, she made her decision, racing at top speed down the long hall and towards the door. Reaching out, she grasped the doorknob, twisting and pulling. It was locked.

Laughter echoed down the hall, and as Violet turned she saw the slowly approaching figure of Dr. Zander behind her, his chest rumbling with laughter and a sick, twisted grin on his face.

"This will only hurt a bit..." he chuckled, pressing on the syringe and making it spirit some of that clear liquid into the air. Violet gulped, not liking the looks of that at all.

Quickly spinning around again, Violet continued to try the knob, pulling on it as hard as she could. "Come on, come on..." she murmured, pulling as hard as she could. It was locked, though, and wouldn't budge.

Turning to see that the doctor was coming even closer, she went to her last resort, stepping back and ramming her shoulder into the door. She did this again and again, slamming her entire body as hard as she could against it. Final, the lock snapped and the door burst open, Violet stumbling into the room. Catching her footing and balancing herself before she fell, Violet quickly turned and slammed the door shut behind her, pressing her back against it, heavily panting and breath coming short.

"Come here, 906609... It's time to take your shots..." his voice crept through the door, sending chills along her spine. Desperately glancing around for any sort of escape or at least a weapon or something, Violet found to her surprise that the room she was in wasn't a normal hospital room. Oh no, it was much worse.

She stood in what appeared to be a cell, damp, cement walls and floor surrounding her, cracks slithering their way across the hard surface. Water dripped steadily from the ceiling, falling into a puddle formed in a dip in the floor. It was dark, there being no discernable light source to be found. Everything about the room was dreary and unpleasant. Yet something about it felt so familiar that it filled her with terror and fear, enough to chill and shake even the hardest bone in her body.

Suddenly, the sound of a small child crying reached her ears, echoing in the small room. She looked around, but saw no one there. Other than her, the room was completely empty.

"I'm so hungry..." the voice sobbed. "Why won't they feed me...?"

Violet opened her mouth to call out to the child's voice when suddenly a sharp, painful ache started up in her stomach. Groaning, she knelt over, doubling herself as she clutched at her belly. His growled loudly, much like a beast, and a feeling like a hundred knifes being stabbed into her overtook her. Tears leaked from her eyes and the child continued to sob somewhere, complaining about their hunger.

"I'm so hungry! Please! Please, someone help me! I just want to eat!"

"Stop it..." Violet whispered, clutching at her stomach in pain. "Stop crying... Stop it..."

About then the voice changed, becoming a bit older and shakier in tone. "I can't take it..." the voice murmured, quivering as though on the brink of sanity.

Slowly straightening her body, the tearing, stabbing pain in her stomach gone, Violet looked around the cell with wide eyes, tears streaming down her cheeks. The room was blurry and almostvlooked as though it were shaking. Or... was that just her?

"Maybe this will help... It will set me free..." the voice whispered, laughing a dry, choked laugh. "Free... I can be free..."

A foul smell filled the air, metallic and salty. Feeling a sharp, numbing pain on her wrist, Violet looked down, eyes widening at what she saw. A deep, red line appeared slowly over her tanned skin, blood welling up and sliding down, staining the surface of her arm a deep red. Another cut appeared soon after, followed by another. One by one cuts appeared along her arms, bleeding out and covering her in the sticky, scarlet substance.

Screaming in fear, Violet tried desperately to stop the flow of blood, grasping her arms and frantically trying to wipe the blood away. "Stop it! Stop it!" she screamed, rubbing and slapping herself, clawing at her skin and tearing at her own flesh. "STOP IT!"

Laughter echoed from the other side of the door, loud and manic, while whispers and murmurs cascaded around the room, filling her brain with so many voices she could barely comprehend.

"STOP IT!" she screamed again, tears falling from her face and dropping to the cement floor. "PLEASE, STOP!"

* * *

 **A/N - Another chapter~ Be sure to review. :)  
**

 **(NOTE: Violet is a character created by faithdakitty on Wattpad. Go read her story Dementia if you want to learn more about her and her past!)**

 **Wolf of Epicness - I can't tell you that quite yet. ;)**


	15. Chapter 15

"Violet! Violet! Violet, wake up!"

Violet's eyes snapped open, breath coming in gasps as she looked around. She was sitting in some random room in the hospital, E.J. and Lucas standing on either side of her.

"Wh-wh-what...?" she trailed off, wide eyes slowly taking in her surroundings. A white tiled room with an empty bed and drawn back curtain greeted her bewildered eyes. Only a moment ago she could've sworn this was an old, crumbling cell. What had happened?

"Are you okay?" Lucas asked hurriedly, kneeling beside her. "We heard you screaming and when we got here you were totally freaking out. What happened?"

She hesitated, mind ticking as she tried to understand it herself. "I-I don't know..."

The boys both frowned and it was silent a moment before Jack spoke up, saying, "Come on, let's go. Lucy should be done by now." The other two nodded, and after helping Violet up, they all left the empty room, heading back to the waiting area. As expected, Grandmama and Lucy were already waiting for them when they got there.

"Where'd you three run off to?" Lucy asked, raising a brow. She noticed Violet's eyes seemed abnormally red and it looked like she'd been crying. She was visibly trembling a little too.

"Oh dear, Violet sweetie! What happened?!" Grandmama exclaimed, walking over and placing her hands on the sides of the girl's face, looking her over with a worried expression.

"N-nothing, I'm fine," she murmured, sniffling a little and shaking her head. That obviously convinced no one, but she gave her best attempt.

"Are you sure? You don't look fine, sweetie." The woman gave her a sympathetic look, trying to prompt her into telling her what was wrong.

Violet nodded, giving her a forced, fake smile. "I'm sure. Thanks."

The old woman frowned, but said nothing, deciding if she didn't want to talk about it then she didn't have to. Obviously, whatever it was was seriously bothering her, so if she wanted to discuss it later than she could, but for now she wouldn't push.

"Alright, well if you're certain." Grandmama glanced at Violet to see if she was in fact certain. The brunette nodded and pressed her lips together, nodding. "Okay then. Let's get going, shall we? I still have to make dinner for everyone back at the inn."

"Oh, I can help, Grandmama," Lucas said, piping up. "You're probably tired. I don't mind making dinner."

She smiled, giving him a soft look. "Thank you, honey. That's alright, though, I don't mind. I may be old but I'm not dead yet."

Lucy snorted, disguising a small smile. That woman had to be her favorite human being ever. She made a mental note that if they ever managed to get back to their old forms, she would never ever kill that sweet old lady. She was way too freaking awesome.

* * *

Violet sat in bed, knees drawn up to her chest and arms wrapped loosely around her legs, blankly staring at the opposite wall. The room was dark, shadows stretching from the furniture and creeping eerily over the hardwood floor. The curtains fluttered as a slight draft came in through the cracked window, and the clock on the wall ticked repeatedly, the time reading midnight. Turning to look at the bed parallel to hers, she saw Lucy fast asleep, hair splayed out over her pillow and arm dangling over the side of the mattress, peacefully and blissfully resting. If only she could do the same.

Wincing as she shifted a bit, she reached down, lifting the hem of her shirt up to look. The skin on his side was a splotchy purple and yellow-green, spotted and rather gross looking. It must've happened when she'd slammed against that hospital door. It hurt like hell...

Sighing, she dropped the hem, pulling it down a bit to fully cover the bruised skin again. She wouldn't say anything. The last thing she wanted right now was another trip to the damned hospital. Like, the absolute last thing she wanted. In fact, she wasn't sure she'd ever be stepping in there again.

What had happened earlier? Back in the hospital... What had she seen? It all seemed so vivid and real, but yet there was no way it could have been. It was like a dream but she was still awake. A hallucination? But what could have caused it? She didn't take anything as far as she could recall. In fact, she'd felt perfectly fine the entire day, so what happened? Was it the hospital? Did it cause some sort of trigger? Or was it something else?

Sighing, she ran a hand through her hair, detangling a few curls in the process. She just wanted this whole thing to end. This was all so stupid. First they wake up in the woods human with no recollection of how they got that way or where they were, and now she was having hallucinations? In fact, Lucy had been rambling about something weird after she fell the other night. Was it possible she had one too? A hallucination?

"What the fuck is going on...?" Violet muttered under her breath, sighing.

* * *

He dreamt he was on fire.

Jeff awoke with a gasp, sweat running in beads down his face and body. He cast blue eyes widely around, seeing a brightly lit room rather the bloody, burning one he'd seen last night.

Hearing a sound, he looked over to see E.J. pulling his black school bag over his shoulder, lip fat and eye bruised.

"What happened to you?" Jeff asked, snorting. "Your girlfriend beat you up?"

The older boy glared at him, replying a tad bit icily, "No, you did." Then with that he left the room, leaving Jeff sitting on his bed staring after him weirdly. He did? When? He didn't remember that.

Throwing the covers off of his body, he nearly choked on his own spit, seeing large bruises like a dalmatian's spots running up both his legs. Where the hell...? Lifting his arms, he saw more there too. Frowning, he stood up, wincing a bit, and headed over to the mirror set above dresser. Staring at his reflection, he blinked.

"WHAT THE MOTHERFUCK?!"

* * *

Lucas blinked, staring at Jeff and E.J. standing side by side, both covered in bruises. "What happened to you two?"

"I don't fucking know," Jeff replied, obviously in a bad mood. E.J. just rolled his eyes.

"He decided to randomly attack me last night."

"I did not!" Jeff snapped. "I don't even remember that!"

E.J. rose a skeptical brow. "Oh really?"

"Really!" Well, he did have a dream where he was beating someone up, but it wasn't E.J. and that was just a dream anyways... Right?

"Will you two sissies quite fighting," Lucy sighed, coming over with Sammy in tow. Lucas immediately and visibly brightened up upon seeing them.

"Sammy! Lucy! Good morning!" he said cheerfully, smiling happily at the two girls. They just glanced at each other, as though communicating telepathically.

"Morning, Lucas," Sammy replied, politely but not nearly as cheerfully.

"We're heading to class now, so we'll see you later," Lucy said, starting to walk off, Sammy by her side.

"Oh, I'll walk you!" Lucas offered quickly. He was ignored, though, and before he could chase after them Jeff grabbed him by the back of his shirt, stopping him in place.

"Dude, you are way too fucking desperate," he sighed, looking very tired. "Seriously, leave them the fuck alone." Lucas glared at him, opening his mouth to argue with him before they were stopped by the sound of laughter nearby.

"Well, well, what do we have here?" They turned to see Leone, the red head kid who'd sprained Lucas's arm and broke Toby's nose, snickering and laughing as he walked up to stand in front of Toby and Caiden at Caiden's locker, his arms crossed over his chest. Toby had noticed his 'friend' when they'd first entered the building and gone over to essentially bother him. Now, though, it seemed they'd attracted the attention of the school bully. Great.

Leone smirked, brown eyes flickering between the two boys, one of whom was obviously purposefully ignoring him and the other of whom looked simply confused.

"Looks like the school fags. How cute. Meeting your boyfriend to walk him to class, huh?" He focused his taunt on Toby, Caiden clearly not giving him any mind.

Toby frowned, tilting his head a bit in confusion. "Yeah. Why?" He clearly did not understand what was going on or the fact that he was being teased.

"What the fuck is he doing?" Jeff groaned.

"I think he thought by boyfriend Leone met a friend who is male," Lucas supplied, shrugging.

Jeff glared at him, snapping, "Yeah, I figured that, but clearly it isn't what he meant, the fucking moron."

Leone let out a short bark of laughter, straightening up again. "Ha, so you admit it? You admit to being a fag? Well then, looks like there's a first for everything!"

Caiden growled a bit, lip drawn back, but said nothing, continuing to pretend to mess with something in his locker. Toby just looked even more confused than before. "Fag?" he questioned.

"Yeah, you're a fag. Fucking fags," Leone laughed, giving Toby a small, one-handed shove that sent him stumbling back into the lockers.

Caiden had finally had enough, slamming shut his locker door and whipping around. Angry brown eyes glared up at the tall, red head, freckled boy, fury burning like flames inside him. "Would you shut the fuck up?! You're such an ignorant fucking douche! I'm not a fucking fag, for your information, and even if I was there isn't any fucking problem with it! Being gay is normal and there's nothing fucking wrong with it, so why don't you just shut the fuck up and learn something about how not to be an arrogant douche who needs to make fun of others in order to hide his own goddamn insecurities! Besides, it's statistically proven that the majority of people who make fun of homosexuals are in fact just overcompensating, so run that one through your head, asshole." Grabbing Toby by the hand, he pulled him closer, still glaring at Leone. "Go slip, fall, and die." He then walked off, Toby in tow as they headed off to class, leaving a shocked and silent hallway behind.

"Well..." Jeff muttered.

Lucas blinked, watching them go. "That was a thing."

* * *

"Oh my gosh, I heard what happened! Are you two alright?!" Mia came racing over to the lunch table, almost slamming into it. She stopped quite suddenly, hands slapping down on the tabletop to keep herself from falling.

Sighing, Caiden glared at her from his seat between Toby and Violet. How did he end up here again day after day? Didn't he tell them all to leave him alone? He was fucking missing history again because Toby wanted to drag him here. He was going to flunk that class because of these weirdos.

"Mia, slow down," Sammy said, raising a cautious hand. "You're gonna hurt yourself."

Turning to look at the her, the short blonde perked up, jumping over to give the brunette a hug. "Sammy! You're not sick anymore!"

"Yeah, no kidding. Mia, you're kind of choking me," she gasped, the tiny blonde squeezing the life out of her.

"Whoops!" She jumped away again, giggling, before suddenly shipping around, facing Toby and Caiden again. "Toby! Cay-Cay! Are you both alright?!"

Seriously? Caiden's eye twitched a bit in irritation. Just the other day he yelled at her for calling him that.

"Oh, we're fi-fine," Toby said, nodding. "C-Caiden told him-him off a-and yelled a bunch an-and stuff-ff."

"He called us fucking fags," Caiden said bluntly, tone clearly not pleased. Across the table Lucy's eyes brows raised and Sammy looked a bit taken aback. Natalie blinked, looking surprised before shooting Toby a quick, slightly worried glance.

"So?" Jeff snorted. "I could see it." He was immediately slapped upside the head by a very grumpy Violet.

"Jeff, watch your fucking mouth. That's not nice," she snapped.

"You're the one that just swore!" he complained, the only response he received being another hit over the head, him yelping a bit.

"Shut the fuck up!"

"Someone's grumpy..." Lucy muttered, snorting and leaning back in her chair, knee balanced against the edge of the table. Violet shot her a glare but said nothing, instead reaching over and slapping Jeff again to which he yelped for a second time, muttering complaints about her being abusive or something.

"So he was calling you gay?" Sammy asked, bringing the conversation back on topic.

Caiden nodded. "Yeah, and being a fucking douche about it. He's a fucking asshole. A homophobic, overcompensating, ignorant douche."

"Sounds right," Lucas said, shrugging agreeably.

Mia snorted angrily, cracking her knuckles. "I'll kill that guy, I swear."

"I'll help," Jeff offered, raising a voluntary hand. A moment later he was hit upside the head again by Violet. "Ow, what the fuck? What is wrong with you? Ow!" He was slapped again.

"You're all morons..." Caiden muttered under his breath, glaring off to the side and avoiding looking directly at any of them.

"They're n-not morons, sil-ill-ly," Toby said, leaning over and poking his cheek. "They're p-people. Duh." Caiden shot him a glare but Toby didn't seem to take any notice.

Natalie sighed, hanging her head. "I am seriously concerned for you sometimes, Toby..."

He tilted his head, confused. "Huh?"

"Will you stop slapping me?!" Jeff shouted as Violet yet again whapped him over the head.

E.J. stood up, grabbing his tray. "I think I'll go eat in the courtyard..."

"Take me with you," Lucy groaned, hanging her head back so her hair fell over the back of her seat.

Jeff yelped again. "Fucking A, woman! Ow!"

* * *

As the bell rang for fourth period to begin, Jeff plopped into his seat, sighing and dropping his bag on the floor next to him. His math teacher Ms. Whatsherface came walking in, tight bun done up on her head, glasses perched pompously on her nose, and an inappropriately short, tight as skin dress hugged her body like it's life depended on it. She simultaneously made him want to throw up and fuck her brains out at once.

Zoning out as she began to drone on about variables or exponents or whatever, Jeff allowed his mind to wander back to the previous night. He definitely remembered dreaming about something, but the bit E.J. mentioned about attacking him in his sleep was not something he recalled. However, they did wake up with some pretty nasty bruises that morning...

* * *

Jeff blinked, eyes wide. He was... on fire. He was on fire. HE WAS FUCKING ON FIRE.

Yelping, Jeff leapt from his bed, beating at the flames crawling up his legs with the sleeves of his hoodie. It did nothing, in fact, it made it worse. Now the sleeves of the sweatshirt had caught flame and he was quick to tug it off, peeling it away from his body and throwing it across the room. He was panicking, beating agains and again at the flames. It did nothing, though. The flames kept climbing, spreading to the rest of his body, and the sickly scent of burning flesh began to fill the room.

A sound. He heard a sound somewhere in the room. Looking around, hoping it was someone who could help him, he instead saw a familiar face, though that was all about the thing that was familiar to him. It's skin was peeling, like old paint curling down the walls of a house, sore red flesh revealing itself underneath and a gross white piss leaking from holes in the skin. The thing was thick and heavyset, one burger too many setting it over the scale. The face was a mask, though not the kind made of wood or plastic. No, it was also made of skin, human flesh. It was a shade off from the rest of the body and tied with a string over the thing's own face. Gaping holes where the eyes once went showed the dark, beady orbs behind, glaring at him in a way malicious enough to send shivers down even his spine. A deep growl rumbled in its throat.

By now the flames had crept up to his torso, licking at his sides and burning at the fabric of his shirt. It hurt so bad it was unbearable. The thing was moving closer too, Jeff's heart pounding harder with each step it took, the face staring at him with the soulless eyes behind it.

"Get the fuck away from me!" he screamed, backing up. He couldn't bear to stare at that torn face anymore, or the peeling body beneath it. It was too much for him, not to mention the searing white pain of his skin burning away from his body, the blood underneath boiling, hot and painful.

The thing continued to approach him, not slowing the slightest in its path. Similarly, the flames continued to grow, spreading from his torso to his neck so that he was nearly entirely engulfed in their treacherous heat. Everything felt as though it were collapsing around him.

Feeling his back slam against the wall of the room, the flames immediately licking at the wall and burning the old wallpaper, Jeff realized he was left no other option but to fight. He'd have to somehow fight the thing off. So taking a deep breath, he lunged forward, colliding with the thing and slamming his fists into it. Of course, as great a fighter as he was, nothing was ever easy when you were literally being burned alive. His hits were slow and not nearly as forceful or impactful as he'd like. The thing, however, had some hits of its own. It hit him back, landing a solid punch on his right cheek, and he stumbled backwards. Reaching back an arm to steady himself on the wall behind him, Jeff got himself standing again, lunging forward for another attempt at the beast. Back and forth this went, one hitting the other and the other hitting back. They tumbled around the room, the flames continuing to grow, claiming them both. The pain was intense and Jeff's vision was blurry and fading, color decreasing till nearly everything was a monotonous haze. It was going black.

Landing a solid hit on one of the thing's beady little eyes, he watched it stumble back. He barely had a moment to celebrate his successful punch, though, before he himself dropped to his knees, eyes slowly closing. The skin covering his body was raw, barely there. Burns like this could not be healed. It was a death sentence, he knew. That's okay, though, because he won.

He beat the monster wearing his brother's face.

* * *

 **A/N - And here's another chapter for you guys. Enjoy, and don't forget to leave a review. :3**


	16. Chapter 16

_They're everywhere._

Blue eyes flickered fearfully around the room, casting glances left and right. It was dark, really dark. He couldn't see anything but pure black, the only sliver of light coming from a crack in the heavy curtains draping the nearby window. In that small line of light he could see the hardwood floor and the edge of a bed, blankets slipping down a bit to pile up at the end. His focus, though, was on the floor. There was something dark there. It looked like a spilled liquid, but he wasn't sure what.

 _They're everywhere._

Struggling a bit, he found he couldn't move his hands. They were bound behind him by something. It felt like rope, though he couldn't see. He was sitting on his bed, the blankets still covering his legs. How did he end up tied up?

"Hello?" he called reluctantly. "Anyone there?"

"You're awake."

A shiver ran along his spine. That voice... There was something almost too eerie about it. Sinister. Like it was piercing through his chest. Familiar too, and not at all in a good way.

"We've been waiting for you to get up. 'Bout time."

A boy stepped out from the darkness, letting the small sliver of light flood over him. His short, golden hair shone most, eyes twinkling darkly and a malicious grin spreading over his face.

"Remember me, Jack?"

E.J.'s eyes widened, heart freezing in his chest. No... No, it couldn't be...

A scream erupting from his throat, he struggled against his restraints, kicking the blankets to push himself back. The boy was advancing toward him slowly, grin still drawn over his face. Giving a final kick, he fell over the side of the bed, slamming his head against the wall behind him with a sickeningly loud bang. Grunting in pain, an immediate throbbing starting up, he forced himself to his feet, hands still bond. Turning away from the boy, he booked it as fast as he could, heading for the door. Slamming his shoulder against it, he tried to force it open. It was locked, though, and he couldn't break through without his hands. Glancing over his shoulder, he saw the boy still advancing. Panicking, he looked frantically around for any other possible escape. The window.

Taking a deep breath, he ran as fast as he could, passing the boy and running at the window. Slamming his shoulder against it, he closed his eyes, the glass shattering. The next moment he was falling through the air, sparkling bits of glass falling like glitter around him and cutting his skin. There was a few terrifying moments of nothingness until he crashed into the bushes surrounding the inn, yelling out in pain as he landed among the tangle of branches.

Hissing in pain, he sat up, forcing his eyes open. The moonlight lit up the front lawn of the inn, allowing him much better visibility than inside. Standing up, he climbed out of the bushes, finally managing to break free of the now loosened bonds.

"Wow, Jack. That was impressive. You could be an action star."

He froze, the sound of the female voice more terrifying than the boy inside. Turning slowly, he stared wide eyed at the beautiful young woman standing there, about the same age as the boy.

"Liz..."

She smiled, eyes flashing darkly for a moment. "You remembered. How sweet..."

He subconsciously began to move backwards, feeling the branches of the bush brushing against the backs of his legs. "Stay the fuck away from me." The words were spat from his mouth with spite, eyes narrowed in pure hatred.

"Oh, but I thought we were friends," she said walking towards him, hands locked behind her back. "Remember? Remember how your little friend told you I was crazy? Told you I was bad? You didn't listen. You wanted to be my friend. You were too nice." She smirked, stepping closer and leaning up to whisper in his ear. "You were too weak."

His lip drew back in a snarl, feeling his breath catch in his throat. "Get the fuck away from me!" He went to slap the girl, hand flying toward her only to be caught by the boy from earlier. He was spun around, arm twisted behind his back quite painfully.

"Didn't anyone ever tell you not to hit a girl?" the boy hissed into his ear, the smirk clear in his voice.

"Go to hell," he spat, wincing as his arm was further twisted back.

"That's my intent."

Suddenly there was a terrible pain in E.J.'s eyes and he felt the awful sensation of something sharp digging in behind them. The sound of gleeful giggles made him sick to his stomach and he thrashed violently, trying to get away. The boy's grip on him was too strong, though, and he found his efforts to be in vain.

A ripping sound filled his ears and he screamed in agony, head thrown back. The other two were laughing, somehow enjoying their sick and twisted game. His entire body writhed and his vision went completely black. He could see nothing, hear only his own screams, and feel only his intense pain. Never had he experienced something so completely horrible before.

"Don't worry, it's almost over," Liz snickered, and he felt the sudden urge to strangle her. He wanted to kill her as slowly and painfully as possible. He wanted her to suffer. To feel the same pain he did.

The boy released one of his hands, grasping him more tightly with the other, and Jack heard him lifting something up. Then a moment later a hot, boiling liquid was poured directly into his now empty sockets, burning furiously at the sore wound. Immediately another scream erupted from his throat. Tar. It was tar.

"It's almost done. We're almost there," the boy laughed, sounding excited.

Jack screamed, writhing in the boy's grasp. He felt his arm snap, a sickening cracking sound filling the air, but at that point that wasn't the worst pain he was feeling by far. Some sort of chanting began to fill his brain, the sound of many voices speaking unknown words echoing in his ears.

 _They're everywhere._

"Let go of me!" he screamed. "Let go! No! You can't do this! YOU'LL DIE!" A fear filled his heart, knowing what was coming next. No. He didn't want it to happen again. He didn't want to experience it again. Please, God, no.

A final word echoed through his head and everything changed. His stomach twisted painfully, heart racing in his chest. Everything seemed to slow down as his body sped up, working in double time. Even his senses became heightened, the sound of his own blood rushing through his veins pounding in his ears. Every little twitch of a muscle sounded like a million drums being beat. His sight returned, though still he had no eyes to provide such a sense. It was incredible how suddenly aware of everything he was. Inhuman.

A blood curdling scream broke free from his throat, shattering the otherwise still night air. His entire body writhed and twisted furiously, the boy still holding him back. His heart beat so hard in his chest he felt for a moment seriously concerned that it would burst and explode from the pressure. He stomach tightened and throat stung from screaming.

Blood spilled from his mouth, tar dripping down from his eyes, mixing in a disgusting combination on his face. He was choking on his own blood, screams breaking free in between. His heart suddenly clenched, feeling as though someone were reaching in and gripping it tightly, squeezing it as hard as they could. After a moment, though, it stopped.

Silence gripped everything. No one spoke. No screams were heard. E.J. kneeled slumped on the ground, finally released from the boy's grip.

 _Kill them._

Standing slowly, he staggered to his feet, focusing on the ground below him. It was strange, he thought briefly, how clearly he could see with no eyes. Shouldn't the tar at least block his vision? Strange. Turning, he looked up at the boy, seeing his wide eyes and excited grin.

"M-my Lord..." he stammered, triumph obvious on his face. However, that excitement and joy didn't last very long. Reaching forward, E.J. grasped his throat, clenching tightly and strangling the boy. Immediately, the expression of joy changed, and wide eyes stared up at him, fingers reaching up in a vain attempt to pry away his hands. Only a few, choked moments later the boy went limp.

Dropping the body to the ground, E.J. slowly turned, meeting gazes with the quite frightened looking girl standing behind him. "Jack..." she said slowly, shaking her head. "Jack, don't do it. Please, don't. You're better than this." He merely shrugged, staring back at her wordlessly. ' _Correction_ ,' he thought, ' _I was better than this._ ' Then stepping forward, he grabbed her by the throat and killed her too.

* * *

When E.J. awoke that morning he wasn't in his bed. He was in a bed but it wasn't his. In fact, neither was the room. He had no idea where he was, actually.

"Oh, thank heavens," a familiar voice drew his attention across the room. Grandmama was just standing up from a chair set against the wall, making her way quickly to his bedside. "I was beginning to think you'd fall into a permanent coma!"

He opened his mouth, intending to ask what had happened, but no sound came out. Instead a dry, raspy cough escaped his lips. Grandmama immediately reached across to the wall, pressing a small red button. By now he could recognize this as a hospital room, and so he assumed that was probably to call for the nurse.

"Don't try talking, you're bound to be dehydrated. Wait just a minute and the nurse should be up," Grandmama said, standing straight again and giving him a firm look. "Don't you dare try moving either or I'll slap you silly. As of this moment you are on bed rest until further notice, got it?" He nodded, not wanting to argue. Besides, judging by the numb buzzing occurring all over his entire body, he probably didn't want to move from bed for a long wheel anyways. He was perfectly fine just lying there.

A moment later a nurse came in, smiling and checking his vitals, moving his body around a bit where needed (this was extremely painful), and then finally handing him a glass of water and a cup of jello before leaving. He set the jello on his nightstand and drank half of the glass of water before setting that aside too.

Opening his mouth again, he attempted to ask a question, but was immediately shut down by the strict look on Grandmama's face. Nodding, he understood what she meant. Don't talk, he got it. Alright.

Sighing, he layed back against his pillow, trying to remember what happened. He had absolutely no idea of how he got in here. Why did his body hurt so bad? How long had he been sleeping? Last thing he remembered he'd just gone to bed in his and Jeff's shared room at the inn and now he was here. What could have possibly happened after he fell asleep? Did have amnesia or something? Maybe something happened the next day and he forgot? He honestly had no idea and it was killing him. He was beginning to feel extremely frustrated.

Hearing the door creak lightly as it opened, he turned his head a little, wincing at the sharp pain in his neck. Okay, so he couldn't even move that much, good to know. Moving his eyes instead, he saw a blond-haired girl standing in the doorway, looking over at him with watery, electric blue eyes. A moment later she was by his side, sitting on her knees with her face buried into the sheets on his mattress, sobbing.

"I-I thought you were dead, you moron. Don't fucking scare me like that ever again, you hear? Or I'll fucking kill you myself, o-okay? Okay..." she sobbed, body trembling and shoulders rising and falling with each heave. Somewhere across the room Grandmama muttered something about watching language, but it was merely a passing comment. Right now wasn't really the time for a lecture on vulgarity.

Slowly moving his hand out towards her, E.J. smiled, petting her head slowly and comfortingly. "Okay," he rasped, coughing a bit. "I... I promise." She looked up at him, blue eyes narrowed into a glare, and he laughed a little before falling into a coughing fit, gasping as he tried to force air into his lungs. She stood up, faced twisted into concerned, but he waved her off, shaking his head. "I-I'm fine..." he whispered, and though she looked uncertain she eventually nodded, slowly sitting back down at his side. Smiling, he looked at her tear-streaked face, carefully reaching out and pushing a strand of unbrushed hair from her face.

' _Lucy really is an amazing friend,_ ' he thought briefly, watching her sniffle and rub her running nose. ' _Sometimes, I think I could even love her._ '

* * *

 **A/N - I HAVE AN EXCUSE. I had no access to the internet at all the entire summer and so I couldn't post at all.** **Sorry! Here's another chapter, though, and I promise soon I'll catch you guys up to Wattled (I just posted the 21st chapter there). I'm posting two chapters today and by the end of the month you should be caught up here! Kay? :3**

 **I hope you liked it! Sorry it's short, but there's another one right after this to make up for it. I love y'all! Don't forget to leave a review!**


	17. Chapter 17

Sighing, Masky rested his cheek on the palm of his hand, staring blankly at the computer screen in front of him. It was Monday morning and he was in the library working, as usual. Most of the others were at school now, except Lucy who was still at the hospital with E.J. And of course Hoodie was somewhere behind him, getting scolded by the librarian for making a tower with a bunch of encyclopedias. He could only imagine L.J. was at the inn making pies or something, that wo-man. Hell, he was probably wearing a flowery apron too. Maybe a bonnet.

Yawning, he opened a new tab, typing keywords into the Google search engine. He'd been up all night reading books he'd checked out and had gotten little to no sleep over the past few days. Now he was continuing his research online but coming up with next to nothing. Nothing about how they could have become humans or how to change back. Nothing even close.

Sighing again, he spun around in the chair, watching disinterestedly as Hoodie tried to fend off the furious librarian, still using one hand to keep his stack of encyclopedias from falling off the table. Recently lots of weird things had been happening, he'd noticed. First, Lucy had freaked out in the middle of the night and fallen down the stairs. Then Violet took off at the hospital and was found crying and screaming in a random empty room. Earlier that week Jeff had attacked E.J. in the middle of the night and not remembered it the next morning. Then finally E.J. had gone flying through a second story window in the middle of the night just a few days ago, resulting in an emergency room visit and two days spent comatose. In every case the person seemed confused and dazed, as though coming out of something. It was definitely strange and he was growing more and more concerned that it might happen again. And if so, then to who?

Spinning back around just as Hoodie's stack of books fell, resulting in an angry shriek from the librarian, he opened up Google again, resuming his search. He'd tried looking up what these strange occurrences could be. At first he thought perhaps it was the Slenderman sickness, but after recalling exactly the symptoms he himself had experienced, he decided that couldn't be it. That involved nose bleeds and fever and small patches of amnesia, not full on freak outs like what had been happening to his friends. This was something else.

Feeling a tapping on his shoulder, Masky turned around, seeing Hoodie standing behind him with a slightly frightened, slightly sheepish look on his face. "Uh, Tim, I'm gonna go, okay?" he said, laughing nervously and cocking his head briefly towards the very angry librarian glaring at him from a few feet away. "I'll see you back at the inn." Masky sighed, nodding, and then waiting until after Hoodie had left, went back to working.

* * *

Jeff groaned, leaning heavily against his locker. "I fucking hate this place. Somebody shoot me."

Looking up from his own locker, Caiden stared at him blankly, replying, "I could but I'm pretty sure guns aren't allowed in school."

Jeff opened his eyes, glaring at him. "You're always so fucking serious. Lighten up, would yah?"

Poking his head around from Caiden's other side, Toby grinned, rasping, "Wh-why so s-s-serious?"

"Okay, who let him watch fucking Batman?!" Jeff groaned, letting his head fall against the locker. Toby just started laughing while Caiden rolled his eyes, slamming shut his locker.

"You're a bunch of fucking morons," he muttered, fixing the strap on his bag.

"Hey, you're one to talk, Mr. Gloom-and-Doom," Jeff replied, giving him a blank stare. Caiden just shot him a glare, not replying.

The sound of running drew their attention, and turning, the boys watched just as Lucas came flying around the corner running full speed. Spotting them, he hit the brakes, skidding and nearly crashing into a few people before finally managing to stop beside them. Gasping for breath he said, "Hey, guys. You seen Sammy?"

"Hey, Speedy Gonzalez," Jeff replied, staring at him with the same blank stare he'd given Caiden.

"N-no, I h-hav-ve'nt," Toby said, shaking his head and ticking a little.

"Oh, okay." Lucas nodded, bent double with his hands on his knees, still gasping for breath. Caiden looked strangely at him, again fixing the strap on his bag.

"Why the hell were you running so fast...?"

"Well-"

"Never mind."

Lucas looked up at the black-haired boy, confused, before turning to look over his shoulder and seeing Leone strutting down the hall towards them. "Oh- God dammit." Sighing, he stood up straight again. "Well, nice seeing you gents," he said, apparently stretching out his limbs as he twisted side to side, arm pulled above his head. "If you don't mind, I'll just be going now." Then turning, he took off again, sprinting down the hall away from the approaching redhead. The other three just watched, silent, wondering what the pretty boy stalker had done that time to garner the bully's attention.

"He should really consider joining the track team," Jeff commented passively, Caiden humming in agreement.

At that moment Leone joined them, stopping a moment to smirk at them with his stupid freckled face. "Hey, fags, you seen pretty boy?"

"No," Caiden replied, raising a brow. "Have you seen the key to my gay sex dungeon? I think I might have lent it to you."

Shooting him a withering glare, Leone spat, "Fuck off."

"Not with you."

"Ohhhh," Jeff laughed, eyes flickering between the short emo boy and the tall Irish boy who was now looking quite irritated. He'd give it to him, he may not be the cynical vampire's biggest fan but he had to admit that was good.

"You little-" Leone stepped forward, going to apparently grab Caiden by the collar, but the shorter boy was much faster and quickly moved out of the way, tripping him in the process. Stumbling forward, he fell to the ground, hitting his head off the locker on the way down. There was a resounding CLANG, and a moment later the redhead sat up, groaning, and clutched at his sore skull. "Ow, fucking a..."

Staring blankly down at him, Caiden casually folded his arms over his chest, raising a brow. "If you wanted to get on your knees that badly you could have just told me. Make it quick, though, class is about to begin." At that point Jeff lost it, leaning his forehead against the lockers.

"I'm gonna fucking kill you!" Leone shouted, stumbling to his feet and lunging for him. Caiden was already across the hall, though, and walking briskly towards class. "Hey, get the fuck back here!"

Turning around to walk backwards, Caiden shrugged, calling back, "Sorry, I would, but you're really not my type!"

At this point both Jeff and Toby were rolling on the floor in fits of laughter. Jeff gasped for air, clawing at the locker next to him. "Can't- br-breathe," he gasped, tears forming in the corners of his eyes.

Growling, Leone flipped them both off before storming off in the opposite direction, teeth grinding. As he walked people cleared the way, steering away from the seething boy.

"Hey, giggles one and two," Caiden called to Jeff and Toby, rolling his eyes. "Get going, you're gonna be late."

* * *

"It was fucking hilarious!" Jeff laughed, banging his fist on the table. Caiden just rolled his eyes from where he sat across from him. He didn't think it was that funny.

"Wow," Mia said, grinning, "Cay-Cay's pretty badass, huh?" Again, Caiden thought, he didn't know about that.

"Y-yup!" Toby chimed in, looking quite chipper.

Leaning around behind the ticking boy, Clocky whispered to Caiden, "Aren't you supposed to be in history right now?"

Nodding, he replied blankly, "Yup." She gave him a sympathetic look before leaning back again, sitting up straight. Caiden just rested his head on his folded arms, looking up at everyone with the same monotonous look he always had on his face. At this point he'd just given up on trying to get away from them all. These people had apparently claimed him and there didn't seem to be much he could do about it, so why bother?

"How's Jack doing, by the way? I heard he was in the hospital," Mia said, frowning in concern.

"E.J.?" Jeff asked, swallowing a mouthful of half-cooked chicken burger. "Fine. He woke up two days ago and is still on bed rest. They said for what a fall he took he's actually pretty lucky. He only broke one leg and got a concussion. The bushes broke most of the fall."

"It's so weird," Violet spoke up, munching on a bar of chocolate, "He just suddenly went flying through a window, right in the middle of the night. No explanation. And because of the fall he can't even remember what happened himself."

Suddenly, a pair of dark brown eyes shot up from behind black-clothed arms, coming to settle on the bar of chocolate in the girl's hand. "Where'd you get that?"

Looking up with a small 'hm?', Violet pointed towards the bag sitting at her feet, replying, "My bag. I have a bunch of candy with me."

There was a few moments of silence as Caiden continued to stare at her from over his folded arms, and then he said, "Gimme."

Blinking, she nodded, reaching down and opening her bag, pulling out a large bag full of various candies. Leaning across the table, she held it out to him. Immediately his hand shot out, reaching in to take some candy. Then pausing, a thoughtful look on his face, he seemed to reconsider, pulling his hand back out and instead just taking the entire bag from her hand. Surprised, she, along with everyone else at the table, watched as he began to blissfully munch on the sugary delights.

Finishing off a piece of taffy, he looked around, glaring at them all suspiciously. "What?"

"So... you really like sugar, huh?" Jeff commented, glancing from the bag of candy to the glowering gaze of the boy currently devouring it.

Glare deepening, Caiden just replied, "Slip, fall, and die."

Whistling, Jeff leaned back in his seat, saying nothing. It didn't matter that he himself was a merciless killer, or that so wasn't practically everyone he knew. Caiden still instilled a certain fear in him he couldn't quite understand. He wasn't afraid of him, per say, but he also knew that messing with that boy may result dangerously. It was just a feeling he had.

Yawning, Sammy set her head down on the table, groaning softly. Mia reached over and patted her comfortingly on the back and everyone else just continued to eat in silence. It was a few moments of quiet before Toby finally looked up and around.

"H-hey... Whe-ere's L-Luc-cas?"

* * *

Sighing, Lucas leaned back against the side of the school, the fabric of his shirt scraping loudly against the rough texture of the bricks. After running away from Leone earlier he'd ended up outside of school. He'd considered going back, but in the end hadn't quite felt like it. Now he was outside, waiting for classes to be over so eh could head over to the inn. If he went there now he knew Grandmama would kill him, so he had to wait a bit.

"This sucks..." he mumbled, running a hand through his short brown hair.

"Oh really? I'm sure it'd be a lot less worse if you just quite whining about it."

Looking up, Lucas was surprised to see a girl standing there, leaning against the side of the building with her arms crossed over her chest. Her long brown hair was pulled into a ponytail behind her head and a smirk painted her lips.

"You," he said, blinking in surprise. "I remember you. We met awhile ago. Do you go here now?"

Nodding, she said, "Yeah, I do. I just transferred here last week. Lucas, right?"

"Yeah, and you are..." he hesitated, feeling guilty that he didn't remember her name.

"Jane," she said, smirking a little. "Jane Underwood. What're you doing out here? Shouldn't you be in class?"

"Shouldn't you?"

She laughed, shaking her head. "Touché."

It was silent a moment as the two stood beside each other, Jane staring at the building opposite the school with her arms still crossed over her chest and Lucas running a hand continuely through his hair, glancing at her every few moments before looking away.

"So, Lucas." He was startled when she suddenly spoke, his attention snapping right back to her. "Your friends are... quite interesting, hm? I've seen you in the hallway with them. You sure know how to make a scene. Especially the short one with the piercings."

"Oh, you mean Caiden?" he said, snorting. "Yeah, he's uh... He's an interesting guy."

"So I've seen." Another moment of silence. "You know, I rather like this school."

He turned to look at her, tilting his head curiously. "Oh yeah?"

"Yeah." She shifted a bit, still not meeting his gaze and instead continuing to stare at the opposite building. "It's entertaining, I suppose. The people. I find it amusing."

He blinked. "That's an interesting way to describe school."

"Yeah, I guess it is." She sighed, uncross ing her arms and pushing off the wall, standing straight. Then turning to look at him, she said, "You should get back to class. You're no good to anyone if you can't even obey simple rules."

He was about to ask what she meant when she suddenly walked over, grabbing him by the back of the head and crushing her lips against his. Surprised, he hardly had time to process what was happening before she walked away, hands shoved into her pockets.

"Bye, Lucas," she called over her shoulder, not even bothering to turn around. "See you around." With that she turned around the corner and disappeared from sight, leaving a very confused and shocked Lucas behind, leaning against the school wall.

...

It was afternoon and everyone was back at the inn. Well, everyone except E.J., who was still at the hospital, and Lucy, who was with him. And of course Jeff had received yet another detention and so he was at school and Violet had stayed after to wait for him. Other than that, though, everyone else was back there, in separate parts of the inn doing their own things.

Sighing, Lucas leaned his head back on the couch, groaning in boredom. "There is nothing to do here..."

"Then go home already," L.J. replied, flipping a page in his Times magazine.

Lifting his head up to look at the black haired man,bye made a face, asking, "Do you actually do anything or just sit here all day and read gossip magazines?" The ex-clown's simple reply was to throw the magazine at him, causing Lucas to scatter from the couch and run out of the room, leaving a cursing L.J. behind.

Sighing, Lucas stood in the front lobby, wondering what he should do. Sammy had locked herself in her room to do homework and Lucy was at the hospital with stupid E.J. He could always call Mia to hang out, but honestly she was a bit unbearable on her own and he wasn't in the mood to deal with her craziness.

"H-hey, Lucas!" he heard the all too recognizable voice of Toby behind him. Turning around, eh saw the energetic boy waving to him as he came bouncing down the stairs, followed shortly behind by a smaller boy (Ben, was it?) with blond hair.

"Hey, Toby," he said, waving back and forcing a small smile.

"We w-were just going to-to head down to th-the mall and lay s-some video games. W-wanna come?"

Lucas frowned, asking, "Why to the mall?"

"Because we live at an inn, dumbass. We don't have any video games," the other kid replied, rolling his eyes and scoffing a little. Wait, did he just call him a dumbass? How old was this kid?

"Oh, yeah..." he said, trailing off. "Well... If you guys wanna play video games then you could always come over to my place. I've got some pretty sick gaming systems and loads of games too."

"R-really?!" Toby asked excitedly, grinning.

"Yeah, sure," Lucas said, shrugging his shoulders and nodding, rubbing the back of his neck with one hand.

"Awesome!" Toby cheered, excited. "L-lets go!"

Rolling his eyes, Ben nodded. "Yeah, sure. Sounds good to me."

Smiling a bit, Lucas nodded as well. "Okay then, follow me. It's not too far from here."

* * *

"You live here?"

Lucas laughed a bit, again rubbing the back of his neck with his hand. They were standing in front of a large, white house, more of a mansion really. The entire home was pristine and well-kept, from the fresh paint down to the neatly groomed and trimmed front lawn.

"Uh, yeah," Lucas said, nodding. "This is my place."

"So you're a pretty boy and a rich kid? Makes sense," Ben muttered, looking over the building with curious brown eyes. Again, he wondered, how dole as this kid? He certainly didn't act or speak like an elementary schooler.

"Someone remind me why I'm here again?" a voice spoke up, and turning, Lucas looked at the black-clothed boy standing beside Toby, arms crossed over his chest and pierced lips formed into a frown.

"B-because we're playing video games," Toby replied, grinning.

"And you need me to do that, because...?"

"Let's just go in," Lucas suggested, ignoring the pessimistic boy. "I've got loads of games up in my room. We can play there."

The three boys followed him in, admiring the beautiful home as they walked through, running their fingers over the furniture and aweing at the gorgeous art hung up on the walls. Lucas lead them through the living room and upstairs, down a hallway and through a door to his room. The inside of that room, too, was gorgeous. The walls were painted a medium shade of gray, the ceiling and crowning brilliant white and polished wooden floors balancing it all out. A king-sized bed sat pushed against one wall and across the room from it sat a leather couch and flat screen tv with at least three different gaming systems hooked up to it and a bookshelf full of games set beside it against the wall. A huge window covered the entire back wall of the room, white curtains pushed to either side to allow light in.

"Holy crap," Caiden muttered, looking around. Even his eyes slightly widened at the sight.

"This is your room?" Ben asked in disbelief. "There's not even any clothing on the ground."

Lucas shrugged. "What can I say? I'm not a very messy person."

Caiden turned to him, giving him a blank stare. "You are human, right?"

Lucas frowned in confusion, nodding. "Yeah. We're all human here..." Ben nearly choked on his spit and Toby began to nervously laugh, earning weird looks from the other too boys. Ben just smiled at them weakly, though, giving them a thumbs up. Rolling his eyes, Caiden started towards the couch and Lucas followed, the other two boys going shortly after them once they'd recollected themselves.

Taking a seat on the couch, Lucas gestured towards the bookcase, saying, "Pick whatever you want. They all work."

Almost too eager, Ben stepped forward, eyes quickly scanning the shelves. After about a minute they can to a dead stop, fixating in on something. Reaching forward, he pulled the game off of the shelf, holding in both his hands and staring down at it. "This one."

Leaning over his shoulder, Toby frowned. "M-Majora's Mask?"

"Isn't that a one person game?" Lucas asked, leaning over as well to get a better look.

Slowly looking up, Ben stared at him calmly. "We're playing this one."

Blinking slowly, Lucas leaned back away from him again, nodding hesitantly. "O-okay..."

As Ben went to put the game in, Toby hovering over his shoulder like a lost puppy, Caiden walked over to Lucas, asking, "Hey, do you have any sweets?"

Lucas nodded. "Yeah, in the kitchen downstairs. Why?"

"Be right back," Caiden replied, not at all answering his question, before turning and leaving the room, shutting the door behind him. Lucas looked after him, a tad confused.

Looking up, Toby commented, "You m-may need to get some more sw-sw-sweets soon."

Lucas blinked. "Why?"

"N-never mind."

He shook his head, not understanding at all. These people confused him. Sighing, he leaned back into the couch, watching as the game came on and Ben set about creating a profile. He had to admit, this felt kind of strange to him. Lucas had never really had any male friends before so it was off for him to be sitting here hanging out with other guys. Normally the only people he ever hung out with were Sammy and Mia, but ever since those guys had moved into town and began staying at Sammy's inn he'd been spending a lot of time around them. He had to admit, he kind of liked it. It was nice not being the only guy for once.

Hearing a sudden, piercing scream from downstairs, the boys all shot to their feet, surprised. "What was that?" Ben asked aloud, speaking what everyone had been thinking. There was soon another shout followed by a crash and the three ran for the door, darting out into the hallways and running down the stairs to see what was happening. The second they got around the corner, though, they were surprised to see Caiden half covered in chocolate standing in the kitchen with some woman screaming at him.

"What the hell are you doing in my house?! Get out of here, I said get out!"

Running forward, Lucas intervened, stepping between the two and shouting, "Mom, calm down! He's not a burglar, he's a friend! We were just hanging out!"

The frantic woman looked down at him, her wide blue eyes the same color as his own. "A friend? Since when? You never told me you had any friends like him?" Then turning, noticing Ben and Toby standing a few feet away, she added, "More friends?"

"Yeah, mom," Lucas sighed, running a hand through his hair. "They're all friends. And I'm sorry I never mentioned them but it's kind of hard to when you're never here in the first place."

The woman set her lips into a tight line, giving him a hard look. Then putting on a smile, she turned to Caiden, saying, "I'm sorry. I hadn't meant to startle you like that."

Caiden glanced up at the woman, still apparently trying to wipe chocolate from his clothing. "Yeah, whatever."

Lucas chuckled nervously, seeing the disapproving look on his mother's face at Caiden's response. "Okay, mom, if you don't mind, we're just going to go back to playing video games..."

She nodded, smiling again. "Oh yes, of course. Don't mind me." Then turning back to the other two boys, she shot them smiles as well. "Nice to meet you." They nodded in response, and still smiling, she left the room, heading down a hallways beside the staircase.

"She seems... nice," Ben commented, watching her go.

"She's a bitch," Lucas sighed, getting weird looks from the other two boys. Ignoring them, though, he turned back to Caiden, frowning. "What happened to you! What were you doing?"

Glaring up at him, the dark-haired boy replied, "I was making brownie batter when that psycho woman came in here and started screaming at me. She surprised me and I dropped the bowl."

"Well that explains the crashing sound..." Ben muttered.

"So wait," Lucas began, giving him an incredulous look, "do you normally just walk into people's houses and start making brownies in their kitchen?"

Caiden just raised a brow, replying, "You mean to say if I had walked back upstairs with a plate of fresh brownies you wouldn't have eaten them?"

"Well no, but-"

"Then don't complain."

Lucas sighed, there was literally no dealing with him. Shaking his head, he knelt down, picking up the bowl which fortunately hadn't shattered. Setting it in the sink, he turned on the water, grabbing a sponge to clean it with.

Raising a voluntary hand, Toby said, "I'll get the mop."

* * *

 **A/N - A nice long chapter for you all! I had a blast writing this one, honestly. The next few chapters are going to focus a lot more on some of the characters OTHER than, you know, the normal ones. (I have realized there are many characters who don't get enough spotlight in this story.) There is also going to be some more development among the ocs and a lot more plot focus, less filler. I plan on seriously getting the story moving from here on out and have plenty of really awesome plans for the the future, so you guys can look forward to that. :)**

 **Thanks for reading and I'll see y'all next time! 3**


	18. Chapter 18

Hello, this is Smile Dog. Throughout the entirety of this story the author has been completely ignoring me and I have received little to no screen time. As you can imagine, this pisses me off. After all, I'm a big star, one of the main characters, and yet I hardly ever appear, let alone get any lines. So, after having a little 'chat' with the author we have reached a sort of... agreement, that for this chapter only I will be taking over. Spread the word.

* * *

Smile yawned, stretching his paws out in front of him and kneading the rug. The room was dark, only a faint glow of morning sunshine creeping in from around the edges of the thick blue curtains hanging over the inn room window. It was warm and Smile found himself very comfortable lying there on the ground. It was almost breakfast, though, and he was hungry, so climbing to his paws he shook dust and hair from his pelt, padding over to the bed.

' _Hey, L.J., get up,_ ' he thought, nudging the sleeping man's arm. He just grumbled something, rolling over and away from the dog. Narrowing his eyes, taking this as a challenge, Smile jumped up onto the bed, pawing at the man's face. Again, he was ignored. He tried again. All he got was a tired hand gesture for him to go away. Finally, irritated, Smile sat down on L.J.'s side, putting all his weight into it. The clown was immediately up, choking and gasping for air as he futilely tried to push the dog off.

"S-Smile! Dammit, get the hell offa me!" he shouted, gasping. Satisfied, the dog stood up, getting off and jumping down off of the bed.

' _About time. I was beginning to think I'd have to bite you awake._ '

L.J. glared at him. "Don't you dare."

' _I won't. I might, but I won't._ '

"You're a son of a bitch, you know that?"

' _Probably._ '

"I hate you."

Smile gave him a smug look, wishing he could grin. ' _Spread the word._ '

* * *

It was breakfast time and the pastas were all sitting down at the dining table, enjoying a nice meal of waffles, scrambled eggs, bacon, and toast. (Beau: DID SOMEONE SAY TOAST?! Me: Wrong story, idiot! Get out of here! Sorry about that... Beau: I want toast... ;-;) Smile, of course, was forced to sit on the ground underneath the table, munching on a slice of bacon. It was demeaning, in his opinion, that he was forced to sit down there and eat nothing but scraps, but as far the humans were concerned he was nothing but a dog and so like a dog he must behave.

Finishing up his piece of bacon, he glanced around, waiting for someone to give him more. As if on cue, Sally's hand snuck under the table, holding out a piece of warm bacon. Stepping forward, he took the piece between his teeth, feeling her release it from her fingers and move her hand back up to the table. Then sitting down, he continued to chew on the new piece, listening to the conversation above.

"So, have you guys thought about maybe getting your own place?" That was Sammy. Smile snorted, rolling his eyes. That human knew nothing.

"Well, I've considered it, but we simply won't be able to find a place that could accommodate all of us. At least not one that wouldn't kick us out within the month, anyways." It was Masky who responded. Smile snorted, nodding in agreement under the table. They'd be kicked out of any place faster than you could say, 'Honey I shrunk the medical staff.'

"Have you at least tried looking?" Sammy again.

"I looked into it a little." This time it was Hoodie speaking. "There really isn't anywhere around here."

"Besides," Jeff stepped in, clearly with a mouth full of food from how muffled his voice was, "we get fed here."

"You're a moron." Violet.

"Well you're a bitch." Jeff.

"Watch that language, young man!" And that would be Grandmama yelling from the kitchen. For an old lady she had excellent hearing.

It was silent a moment and Smile snickered a little, imagining Jeff rolling his eyes and flipping the old woman off from the other room. His suspicions were confirmed when there was the SLAP! sound of Violet hitting Jeff and then Jeff yelping and calling her a bitch again. At that point Sammy stepped in and told Jeff to, quote: "Please stop talking. You're only hurting yourself."

Everyone but Jeff was laughing.

* * *

Smile sighed, rolling over onto his back and watching his paws hang in the air over his head. He was bored. It was about noontime and all the kids were off at school, Masky and Hoodie had gone to the library, and L.J. was helping Grandmama bake pies in the kitchen. He'd honestly lost faith in his clown friend. He was becoming such a... such a housewife.

Rolling back over and climbing to his paws, the dog yawned, stretching out his stiff limbs. This was the same thing that happened every single day. Everyone left to go do whatever and he was left there doing nothing. He couldn't help with the search for information on their transformations, or help blending in and learning about the humans, or really just help with anything at all. All he could do was lie around and act like a dog. A normal, non-talking, boring old dog.

Shaking his head, Smile walked over to the t.v. set in the corner of the common room. He'd become accustomed to being alone and had learned how to turn the t.v. on for times when he had nothing better to do. Raising a paw, he slapped the on button, wrinkling his nose in distaste when the news immediately came up. Stupid humans. What was their obsession with the weather and other people? If you want to know what the weather's like then go outside. Easy.

Pressing the channel up button with his nose, Smile flipped slowly through the channels until he landed on a cartoon station. Then stepping back, he looked up, eyeing the colorful animations on screen. Padding back across the room he laid down on the rug, resting his snout on his paws and watching the t.v. He loved this show. Scooby Doo talked just like him.

* * *

It was about one in the afternoon when Masky suddenly came bursting in, looking frantically around. Spotting the dog laying asleep on the rug, he ran over, kneeling down and shaking him. "Hey, Smile, wake up. Big news."

' _What now?_ ' Smile asked, lifting his head sleepily and giving the curly-haired man a grouchy look.

"I found something," he said, looking dead serious. And sitting up, Smile gave him a concerned look back.

' _What did you find?_ '

"Look at this." Masky opened up the laptop he was carrying - he'd bought one recently so as to be able to continue his research outside of the library - and clicked a few things on the trackpad before turning it for Smile to see.

Smile blinked, eyes slowly widening. ' _What... What is that?_ '

Masky shook his head. "I don't know, but I'll tell you what, I don't like it."

' _Yeah, I don't either._ '

* * *

"I TOLD YOU!"

Lucy paced back and forth through Masky and Hoodie's room, repeating 'I told you' over and over. Everyone was crowded in there, yet again, discussing Masky's latest discovery.

"I told you, I told you, I told you, I told you!"

"Okay, we get it!" Jeff snapped, irritated. "You told us. We heard you the first twenty times."

Lucy stopped, glaring at him, and Toby immediately scrambled away, afraid of being caught in her range again.

"Okay, everyone calm down. Let's just talk about this peacefully." Masky stepped in, holding his hands up as a sign of peace. "Arguing over who said what will do absolutely nothing for us."

L.J. sighed, nodding in agreement. "He's right, we need to actually talk about this. It's kind of a major deal."

"Yeah, I mean, we already knew that the humans knew about Slenderman, but us...? That's some pretty big news," Ben said.

Violet snorted. "Yeah, no kidding."

It was silent a moment, then Hoodie spoke up from where he sat on his bed, Masky's laptop sitting in front of him. "I found a site."

"What?" Masky frowned, pushing around Jeff to sit beside Hoodie on the bed, peering over his shoulder. "What's this?"

Hoodie scrolled through the site, clicking on things and reading them. "It's the CreepypastaWikia? Or something like that? It's a bunch of stories about... Well, it seems quite a few are about us."

"Seriously?" Clockwork asked, leaning over to see too, holding her hair back from her face with a hand.

"Yeah..." Hoodie said, nodding slowly, eyes scanning over something. Then turning so everyone else could see he said, "Yeah, see, here. This is Bloody Painter's story."

The pastas all crowded forward, leaning in to look at the page. It was a story, and along the sides were images- drawings of Bloody Painter. Lucy whistled lowly.

"Wow... That's what he looks like too..."

"This is insane," Violet sighed, standing up straight again, backing out of the crowd.

"Let me see..." L.J. said, reaching over and taking the laptop from Hoodie. Then sitting back down in an armchair in the corner of the room, he set it on his lap, typing in something and clicking. Then reading for a minute, he turned to look up at everybody. "It's legit. I just found me."

"What?!" There was a collective shout and then the laptop was taken again, this time by Ben. The short blonde was only reading a minute before he handed the laptop off to Toby, an astonished look on his face.

"He's right, I'm in there too."

"W-wow," Toby said, glancing through Ben's story. "Yours is long."

Ben nodded, looking a little torn. "Yeah, I guess it is."

The laptop continued to get passed around, everyone taking turns in looking themselves up. Violet had to type in Smile's for him since he couldn't really use the keyboard. After about an hour of going through and reading their own stories they all sat in silence, not sure what to say anymore. They'd made an absolutely momentous discovery and no one knew how to react.

"So..." Lucy finally spoke up, breaking the dreadful silence. "They know about us. The humans know that we exist."

"Sort of," Masky corrected, sighing and leaning his cheek against his hand. "They know we exist as fictional characters, they do not know that we are actually real, though. They believe that we're just made up, like in a book or a movie or something."

"Still, that doesn't make it much less concerning," Clockwork sighed softly, playing with a piece of her hair and staring into space.

"I just don't get it!" This time it was Violet who was talking. "How do they know what we look like? What we do? Those stories are so... specific. Everything about them is accurate, down to the last detail. How is that even possible?"

Lucy nodded in agreement. "Yeah, I was wondering that too. I mean, when I read my story it ended with me actually killing the victim. There were no witnesses. I think I might even remember that killing too. So how on earth did someone get ahold of it? How did it get published online when nobody could have possibly known about it?"

Everyone went silent. Nobody knew the answer.

"I-I don't like this..." Toby mumbled.

Ben sighed, shaking his head. "Neither do I, Toby. Neither do I."

* * *

It was night now and Smile was still in Masky and Hoodie's room laying on the floor. L.J. was downstairs helping Grandmama with dinner (such a housewife) and so he'd decided to hang out with them. Masky had gone to take a shower, though, and Hoodie was just sitting on his bed doing something on Masky's laptop.

Bored, Smile stood up, stretching before padding over and jumping up onto the bed. Hoodie looked up as he approached, about to say something, but Smile was already next to him and looking at the screen before he could speak.

' _What... on earth... are you reading...?_ '

Hoodie laughed a little nervously. "Uh, it's just a little research."

' _Oh really? A..._ ' He paused, squinting his eyes and reading a passage off the screen. ' _Story about Violet...?_ '

Hoodie laughed again, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly. "Uh... yes?"

' _Really?_ '

"Yes."

' _Why?_ '

"It's a form of research!" Hoodie had attempted to defend himself, but upon noticing the look Smile was giving him he sighed, defeated. "Fine, it's called fanfiction, apparently. People make up and write their own stories about us and some are really weird, some are uh... disturbing, and then others are actually pretty cool."

Smile tilted his head, a little curious. ' _So that's what you're reading? Fan... fiction?_ '

Hoodie nodded, turning the laptop for Smile to see. "Yeah. See, this one is called Dementia. It's actually pretty good. We're all in it."

'Really?' Smile leaned forward, reading a little off the screen again. ' _What's it about?_ '

"Violet, mainly," Hoodie replied, turning the screen back towards himself again. "But it's still pretty interesting. And I've learned quite a bit about her now too. I mean, it's fanfiction, so I don't know if it's true, but..."

' _Blackmail?_ '

"Yeah, pretty much."

* * *

It was Wednesday night when Smile awoke from his sleep, panting and scrambling his paws over the floor. He looked around, silver eyes wide. He'd been having a strange dream. It was so... vivid. So real.

Shaking his head, Smile stood up, stretching and moving to join L.J. on the bed. The clown was asleep so he wouldn't even notice. The room was pitch dark and the blinking digital clock on the bedside table read 1:03 am.

Hopping up, Smile laid down beside the sleeping man, settling his head on his paws and closing his eyes. It was only a moment, though, before he began to hear something. A strange eerie noise. Opening his eyes, he looked around the dark room, but saw nothing. Closing his eyes again, he tried to go back to sleep, but again the noise returned and kept him awake, irritating him.

' _What is that?_ '

Raising his head, Smile looked around, narrowing his eyes as he tried to spot the source of the noise. He couldn't tell where it was coming from, not even the direction. It just kind of sounded like it was coming from... well, everywhere.

Standing up, Smile stood still on the bed, ears perked. What the hell was that noise? It was so... frustrating. So loud and piercing it almost physically hurt. What was it?

He hopped back down off the bed, padding around the room and looking everywhere he could think of. Under the bed, in the closet, out the window, anywhere the noise could possibly come from. The door was shut, so he couldn't check the hall, but he stood beside the wooden door anyways, listening. It didn't seem to be coming specifically from there either.

Frustrated, he paced back and forth across the room, claws clicking on the floor as he moved. The noise would not stop. It was just this terrible, awful sound, never ending. It was driving him absolutely insane.

Hearing a groaning sound, Smile looked up, seeing L.J. sitting up in bed. "What are you doing! Do you know what time it is?"

Smile glanced towards the clock, watching as it changed from 1:03 to 1:04. It hadn't even been a minute since the sound started? It felt like so much longer, though...

"Go back to sleep, will you?" L.J. complained, laying back down.

' _You don't hear that sound?_ '

"What sound?"

' _That sound! That terrible, shrill ringing sound._ '

"I don't hear any damn sound. Go back to bed."

Smile growled in frustration, beginning his pacing again. L.J. groaned again, sitting back up.

"Will you cut it out? I'm trying to sleep."

' _So am I, but I can't with this stupid sound in my ears._ '

"I still have no idea what you're talking about."

' _How can you possibly not hear that? It's literally so loud._ '

"Whatever. Just go to bed, you're losing it."

Smile watched as, yet again, L.J. lay back down to sleep. The noise still hadn't stopped. In fact, if anything it was just louder now. Growling under his breath, Smile kept up with his pace, irritated. Maybe he really was losing it. What other explanation was there for this sound he kept hearing that supposedly didn't exist?

Suddenly the sound doubled in volume, practically vibrating in his eardrums. Smile yelped in pain, dropping to the ground and burying his face into his paws, hitting at his ears, trying to alleviate the horrible ringing. Still it didn't stop, slowly increasing in intensity. He counted to ten in his head, then again. Again. It was to no avail, the ringing was still there and hurt just as much as before. The pain was practically unbearable.

Whimpering, Smile bat at his ears more frantically, ducking his head down and scrambling around the floor trying to alleviate the pain in any way he could. L.J. was sitting up in bed again, glaring at him and saying something. Smile couldn't hear him over the sound though. The sound was all he could hear. He couldn't focus on anything else, it was just so glaringly unbearable.

The sound got louder again. It was still going up, increasing in volume. Smile glanced at the windows, half expecting to see the panes shaking in the sill. He could hear nothing but the sound, not even the frantic scratching of his own claws on the hardwood flooring. L.J. appeared to be yelling at him now, but he really couldn't tell. It was like someone had pressed the mute button on life. Nothing reached his ears, not a single sound. The only thing he could hear was that terrible, awful ringing sound.

Barking now, trying desperately to hear anything - ANYTHING - but that horrible sound, Smile ran around the room, clawing at the door and howling at the top of his lungs. Still not a sound. He couldn't hear anything.

L.J. grabbed him by the scruff, yanking him backwards, but Smile was desperate now. Pulling away from the clown, he ran back to the door, frantically scratching at the wooden surface, leaving deep gouges in the polished wood. He howled and barked, whimpered and whined. Nothing was audible to him, that noise drowned out everything. He knew that L.J. was screaming at him now, and he could see the light in the hallway flick on through the crack under the door. He didn't hear what L.J. was screaming at him, though, or the fast approaching footsteps of the inn's other guests.

The door vibrated with knocking, and Smile could see L.J. saying something to whoever was on the other side. He continued clawing and scratching, trying desperately to find anyway out. He had to get away from that noise, wherever it was coming from. Finally, L.J. grabbed him by the scruff again, yanking him backwards and away from the door. It opened, and in stepped an irritated Jeff, concerned Ben, and rather upset looking Sammy.

Sammy began to yell at L.J. who yelled back, and Jeff stepped in, yelling too. Smile couldn't hear what they were saying, but he knew they were all angry for some reason. Sally appeared in the doorway with her teddy bear, poking her head in sleepily to see what was going on, and a moment later Clockwork, Violet, and Toby all joined her. Ben stood just inside the room, watching the three arguing, occasionally glancing over at Smile.

Continuing his frantic barking, Smile tried to get away from L.J., seeing the open door. He had to escape, to get away. The sound was still getting louder and he couldn't take it for much longer. Scrambling about, squirming in the clown's grasp, the husky attempted twisting out of the hold but the man was too fast, tightening his grip on the dog's scruff and holding him there.

Masky shouldered his way in, followed closely by Hoodie, and joined the argument, shouting first at L.J., then saying something to Sammy, then back to L.J. again. Jeff said something and Sammy reached over, slapping him upside the head, making him shout even more. Smile was still trying to escape, pulling and twisting with all of his strength.

Glancing over at Smile again, Ben walked over, kneeling down in front of the dog and frowning. He said something but Smile couldn't hear him. Again he tried to say something, but to no avail. The dog could hear nothing but ringing- that terrible, awful ringing.

Finally escaping from L.J.'s grip, Smile immediately bolted for the door, shoving through the collection of people standing there and bursting into the hall. Before anyone could so much as take chase he was down the hall, bounding down the stairs three at a time and into the main lobby. In another second he was out the door and on the front lawn. Still he could hear that horrible sound. Continuing to run, he went out into the road, across to the sidewalk, around the street corner, through an alley, just this way and that. He ran and ran, bounding over the cold pavement as fast as he could, eyes watering. That sound was so terribly painful to listen to.

He had no idea how long he ran for. It could have been only a minute, or it could have been an hour. It felt like forever though before he finally stopped, collapsing on his side in some random alleyway. Unable to stand any longer he just lay there, panting and sides heaving. The sound was still there, but it was less now. More of a dull, long beep. Quieter and not so nearly seering.

Closing his eyes, Smile allowed himself to slowly slip into darkness, shivering in the cold night air. He wondered briefly where he was, but it was only a passing thought before he passed out, falling into a deep, deep sleep.

* * *

 **A/N - I told you I'd catch you guys up. Here's another chapter! Yay! :3**

 **I hope you guys liked it! I wanted to focus more on a character we don't see often. Don't forget to leave a review~! Bye! See yah next chapter! 3**


	19. Chapter 19

It was cold that morning, the November air chilled with the approach of winter. A cold breeze whipped at the remaining leaves in the trees, forcing many down to the ground where they gathered in piles. Everything was damp from an early morning shower and the sky was a dreary gray. Two people, a teenage boy with a black hoodie pulled taught around him and a little girl with copper pigtails and a pink bag pulled over her shoulders, were walking side by side down the road. The little girl was skipping and humming cheerfully and the boy had his hands shoved into his pockets, black hair fallen over one eye. As they walked the boy glanced down at the girl, rolling his eyes in exasperation.

"Will you quit it with the happy-go-lucky shit? It's annoying."

"Moms said you shouldn't swear around me."

"Fuck you."

The little girl rolled her eyes, turning her head to look away. Just then she stopped, standing still in the middle of the sidewalk and staring off somewhere across the road. The boy stopped too, looking back at her in annoyance.

"What are you doing now? You're gonna miss your bus and then I'll be late because I'll have to walk you all the way to your school."

"There's something in that alley over there."

The girl pointed towards an alley across the street between two cafes. It was fairly dark, it still being early in the morning, but he could just make out a small lump of fur at the end of her finger.

Moving to join her, the boy peered across the street, curious now. What was that? Glancing up and down the road, he walked quickly across, the girl scampering along behind him. In a moment they were on the opposite side, standing before the alley.

"It's a dog..." he said, staring down at it.

The girl stepped forward cautiously, bending a little to look at it. "Is it alive?"

"Wendy, get away from it. It might have rabies or something."

"Oh, like you care if I get rabies."

"No, but I don't want it, and considering how often you bite me, if you get it then it's only a matter of time."

Wendy pouted, then turned back towards the dog, cautiously balancing herself on one leg and poking the dog with the toe of the other. It stirred.

"Ah, it's alive!" Wendy jumped back, startled.

Rolling his eyes, the boy crouched down to get a closer look at it. "No shit, Sherlock. It's breathing, isn't it?" Then looking it over, he murmured quietly, "It doesn't seem to have rabies... I don't think it's injured either. A stray, maybe?"

"Maybe we should bring it back to moms. They'll know what to do."

He frowned, sighing. "Yeah, maybe. We're gonna be late to school, though..."

Wendy glared, folding her arms over her chest and pouting at him. "I think an animal's life is more important right now than your history class."

"You have no fucking idea. I am failing that class so hard right now thanks to a couple of morons."

"That wasn't an invitation for you to talk."

"I don't need one, you're twelve."

Wendy just pouted again, before crouching down beside him and gently prodding the dog. It shifted, but didn't wake.

"It's a husky, right?"

"How should I fucking know?"

"You know some dog breeds, right?"

"I'm not a fucking trainer."

"Well I'm not either and I'm pretty sure it's a husky."

"If you're so fucking sure then why the hell are you asking me?"

"I don't know, a second opinion? Not that yours counts for much anyways."

"Gee, thanks. Because I really value the opinion of a sixth grader."

"And I really value the opinion of a prick."

"What did you call me?"

"A prick."

"Say that one more time..."

"Caiden's a prick! Caiden's a prick! Caiden's a-"

"I'll kill you."

"I'd like to see you try."

Caiden opened his mouth, about to retort, when they heard a soft whimpering beside them. Turning, the siblings looked to see that the dog had awoken, though he wasn't moving. He appeared exhausted, and upon closer inspection Caiden noticed a bit of dried blood caking the dog's obviously sore pads. He must've collapsed from exhaustion.

Sighing, Caiden stood up, stretching his arms over his head a moment before bending down again and scooping the dog into his arms. Standing, he lifted the dog with some difficulty, carefully balancing the heavy creature in his arms.

"Wendy, go catch your bus."

"I probably already missed it."

"Wendy-"

"No! I wanna help!"

"Wendy, I said-"

"NO!"

Turning dark brown eyes on the little girl, he glared at her furiously, snapping, "WENDY MARIE ROCHESTER, GO CATCH YOUR FUCKING BUS RIGHT NOW. I'M NOT GOING TO TELL YOU AGAIN."

She pouted, eyes watering a bit. Then crossing her arms over her chest, she spun quickly around, stomping angrily back across the street and down towards her bus stop. He watched her a moment to be sure that she actually went, before turning in the opposite direction and heading back towards home, the barely conscious dog in his arms.

' _Great, looks like I'll be missing history again._ '

* * *

When Caiden walked in through the door he found his moms standing in the kitchen making coffee. They both looked up in surprise when they saw him, mouths opening to question what he was doing back home and not at school, but then immediately drew their attention instead to the dog being held in his arms.

"Could I maybe get some help?" he said in his usual monotonous voice. "He's kind of- uh, heavy." He struggled to balance the furry creature in his arms, grimacing as he nearly dropped it. Immediately, his stepmom rushed forward, taking the dog from the scrawny boy's arms and carrying it into the living room, setting it carefully on he rug. Caiden and his mom followed, Caiden rolling his shoulders and wincing at the sore feeling in his arms. He needed to try working out more. Or at all. Whichever.

"Where did you find it?" his mom asked, leaning against the doorway and playing with the chain on her necklace, frowning as she watched her wife check the dog for wounds.

"Wendy spotted it in an alleyway on the way to school," Caiden replied, sighing as he unzipped his hoodie and pulled it off, revealing the plain black t-shirt underneath. "I couldn't really leave it there to die, so..." He tossed the sweater across the room, watching it land and crumple onto the couch.

"And Wendy?" She turned to look at him, brows raised nearly to her dark brown bangs.

"I sent her to her bus stop, though she was pretty pissed at me."

"Alright. And watch your language."

"Fuck."

"Rebel."

Kimmie, his stepmom, sighed, standing up from where she'd been crouching beside the animal. "It's fine, for the most part. Looks like it exhausted itself. I'll make it some eggs to eat when it wakes up and we'll set out a bowl of water. I can clean the pads too. It looks like they were rubbed raw by pavement, judging by the bits of gravel dried into the blood." She then sighed again, folding her arms over her chest. "My real concern is that he may react violently if he wakes up in a strange environment with people he doesn't know..."

Caiden's mom stepped forward, still fingering her necklace chain. "Maybe we could tie him up?" she suggested, shrugging.

"That's not a bad idea." Kimmie pursed her lips, thinking. Then, as though coming to a sudden realization, she turned to look at Caiden, raising a single brow. "Shouldn't you be heading to school about now?"

He pretended to think about it for a moment, rolling his eyes to the ceiling and tilting his head to the side. Then taking a deep breath, he said, "Uh... No. No, nope. I'm good. Thanks for the suggestion, though."

Kimmie folded her arms over her chest, narrowing her eyes challengingly. "Oh, really, mister? Because I'm pretty sure you don't have a choice."

He was about to retort, likely with something snarky that would have made her mad, but just then the dog began to wake up, whimpering and catching their attention.

Walking cautiously towards it, Amelia, Caiden's mom, bent down a little, looking at it. "It seems he's awake."

"Hun, be careful. He might try and attack you or something," Kimmie said, stepping forward and gently pulling Amelia back by her shoulders. Amelia just turned to look a t her wife over her shoulders, frowning.

"I'm not a little girl, you know. I can handle a dog."

Kimmie didn't seem convinced in even the slightest, but before she could say anything Caiden hurriedly stepped in, recognizing where this conversation was going. Every time Kimmie got overprotective of his mom it ended in a fight about her ability to protect herself, something his mom was very sensitive about after what happened with his dad.

"I'll find a leash to tie it up, so why don't you get him some food and water, 'kay?"

His moms both looked at him, blinking, before Amelia said, "Don't boss me around."

Flashing her a thumbs up, he replied, "Kay, great, sorry. Get to." Then turning, he bounded up the stairs to go find a rope or something. Behind him, he could hear Kimmie murmuring under her breath to his mother.

"How on earth did you raise him?"

Stepping off on the second floor, Caiden stopped, looking up and down the hallway. There was a supply closet at one end, and sneakers squeaking on the polished hardwood flooring, he headed for it. Twisting the rattling old knob, he yanked the door open, jumping back as a mop and broom immediately fell out. Wendy.

Sighing, he began to sift through the mess of cleaning supplies and tools, trying to find something he could use as a leash. No such luck. Sighing, he tried to think of where else he could get something of the sort. He'd use a couple of belts strung together, but unfortunately he only owned the one he was wearing. But Wendy had a few...

Pushing open the door to his sister's room, he walked cautiously in. Even though he knew she was off at school, he still couldn't help but feel like he was on dangerous territory. Like some hidden mine was going to just go off and kill him at any moment.

Looking around, he spotted a couple of hooks stuck into the wall, a row of belts and purses and scarves hanging from them. Perfect.

A minute later Caiden returned to the living room, seeing his mom carefully setting a bowl of water in front of the dog, the smell of eggs cooking wafting in from the kitchen. In his hand he held a "leash", if that's what you could call it. It was made from a couple of belts and scarves tied and looped cleverly together, the texture and color changing as it went down.

Looking up, Amelia raised a brow, frowning in confusion. "Why is your leash fuzzy and covered in pink sparkles?"

"If Wendy asks," he replied, sighing, "it was for a good cause."

His mom just nodded, and then watched as he stepped towards the dog, kneeling beside it and carefully wrapping the end of one belt around his neck. The slipping it through the metal piece like you would when putting the belt on a pair of jeans, he stabbed a new hole into the material, clasping ti and making sure it was loose enough for the dog to breathe, but tight enough to be sure he wouldn't escape. Then tying the other end to the lowest rung on the stairs, he made sure the knot was nice and tight.

Standing up, Caiden dusted his hands off, sighing. "There. Now we shouldn't have a rampaging poochie on the loose. Hopefully."

"Way to be positive," Amelia mumbled, rolling her eyes. Then looking up as Kimmie came back into the he room, she watched her set a bowl of scrambled eggs in front of the beast, stepping back away from it and out of the reach of its oddly enormous jaws.

Sitting on the lowest step of the stairs, Caiden rested his elbows on his knees, placing his face in his palms and staring down at the dog from under a curtain of black hair. The dog seemed to be... glaring? - at them, eyes switching from Kimmie, to his mom, to him, to the food, and then back again. He seemed fairly uncertain about the whole situation. Not the Caiden could really blame him. He probably would be too if he were him.

"It's alright," his mom leaned towards the dog, still sitting on her knees on the floor. A smile stretched across her face and she nodded encouragingly towards the bowls of water and food sitting before him. "Go ahead, have some. It's good, I promise. No need to be scared."

Again, the dog glared suspiciously at her. He didn't seem very trusting of what she said, though, on that hand he probably didn't understand it either. He was a dog after all.

"It's alright," she repeated, still smiling.

There was another few moments of hesitance, but then moving cautiously forward a little, shuffling on his belly, the dog bent his head, smelling and then slowly beginning to eat the bowl of eggs. A grin spread across Amelia's face, and from the doorway Kimmie smiled, snorting in amusement at Amelia's pure joy.

"There you go. Good boy," Amelia murmured, smiling happily. She sat back on her heels, then, sighing softly and watching the dog eat. In only a few moments he had finished, and then eh was on to the water, hesitant at first but then soon gulping it down greedily.

Kimmie whistled. "Someone was thirsty."

Just then, Caiden's phone began to go off in his pocket, beeping. Both moms looked up in surprise, never having heard their son's phone actually go off before. Nobody texted or called him but them.

Pulling it out, Caiden flipped open the old phone, reading the name on screen before sighing. "Speaking of which..." Hitting the accept button, he lifted the phone to his ear. "Yes, Toby?" There was some frantic, stuttered yelling from the other side, and both moms flinched as they watched him pull his phone away from his ear, wincing and glaring at it. Pulling it back to his ear again, he snapped, "Quit yelling, will yah?! You're gonna burst my fucking eardrum!" More (slightly quieter) yelling. "I'm staying home, okay? Something came up." Caiden rolled his eyes at whatever response he received. "I'll see you tomorrow, Toby. Calm down." Muffled talking. "Okay, goodbye. No, Toby, goodbye. Goodbye!" Finally he pulled the phone away from his ear, sighing in frustration and flipping it shut. "He never stops talking."

It was silent for a moment, then his mom spoke up. "So... Who was that?"

"A friend, I guess," Caiden sighed, silently wondering if calling Toby a friend aloud was such a good idea. He might hear him from all the way across town and come running.

"You have friends?!" Kimmie blurted it out before she could stop herself.

Caiden shot a steady glare at his stepmom, replying, "Yes, yes I do. Well, sort of. I have people who drag me around and get me into trouble, if that's what you mean."

"Yeah, that sounds like the definition of a friend, but it's still hard to believe that you've found some," she said, frowning in confusion.

"Your faith in me is overwhelming."

"Well I'm sorry, but I'm just being honest and stating the truth!"

"You couldn't sugarcoat it even a little?"

"Hey, you're not my kid. I'm just banging your mom."

Amelia looked horrified. "Kimmie!"

"What?"

Caiden made a face. "That's just gross. I'm officially traumatized now."

"Kimmie, don't say things like that in front of him!"

"What, like he doesn't know we have sex? As if."

Caiden groaned, covering his ears with his hands. "Please don't say the s word."

"What, sex?"

Amelia glared at her wife. "Kimmie!"

"Why is everyone getting so mad at me?!"

"Because you're talking about our sex life right in front of my son!"

"What, he's seventeen, he knows what sex is!"

"But you don't need to announce it to him!"

"I think he can handle a little sex ed.!"

"Stop saying sex!" Caiden groaned, sitting on the floor and flipping his hood on. "I don't wanna hear this!"

Kimmie was about to open her mouth to say something else, but was interrupted by a short bark from the husky currently sitting a few feet away, watching the entire fiasco with judgmental eyes.

"Great, even a dog is judging our family," Amelia mumbled, shaking her head. Kimmie rolled her eyes at her wife before moving forward, kneeling down in front of the dog and looking at him curiously.

"Hey, boy. You all done?" The dog titled his head, seeming to frown at her. Caiden shivered a little, creeped out. The dog's face was so expressive. It was almost like a human's...

Reaching forward, Kimmie took the empty bowl from the dog, standing up and turning, heading into the kitchen to drop it off in the sink. While she was gone, Caiden and Amelia watched the dog, both cautious and analytical in their gaze. The dog seemed to watch them as well, eyes taking them in and observing them- assessing their potential threat perhaps. It was unsettling, the way he stared at them with those abnormally intelligent eyes.

"I don't like this dog..." Caiden murmured, dark brown eyes narrowed.

"Shush," his mother murmured back, her own dark brown eyes trained on the dog as well. "Be nice. He's a living creature too, and in need of attention at that."

Caiden rolled his eyes, glancing at his mom. "It's not like he can understand what I'm saying."

She frowned, not removing her gaze from the dog. "You don't know that for sure..."

Caiden rolled his eyes again, but as he looked back at the dog he got the strange sense that she was right. The way those pale blue eyes stared back at him, steady and clear, narrowing slightly as they noticed him returning the gaze... It was unsettling and odd. Something about that dog was just... not natural. Unreal.

"Alright then," Kimmie's voice was loud as she came back into the he room, dusting off her hands, "what do you say we try and find this guy's owners, huh?"

"I think he's a stray..." Amelia replied hesitantly, still looking at the dog from a safe distance away.

"You sure?" Kimmie asked, frowning and crouching down beside her wife, also watching the dog. "He looks a little too well fed to be a stray, don't you think?"

"Maybe..." Amelia replied, still not looking all too certain. "Do you suppose he has a name?"

Kimmie frowned, shrugging. "He's not wearing any tags."

Caiden listened to the conversation with little interest, still focused on watching the dog. The dog seemed to also be tuning out the two women, staring intensely back at him instead. It's eerie gaze was settled solely on the teen, and Caiden shifted a little in his spot, uncomfortable under the judgmental stare. He felt as though those eyes were slowly tearing him a part, looking deep inside and prodding where he didn't want to be prodded. He didn't like it at all.

"Maybe we could try calling him by random names? Like generic dog name So?" Kimmie suggested.

"I don't know. I feel like that wouldn't really work," Amelia replied.

"Hey, it's worth a shot, though."

"Yeah, I guess..."

 _'My name is Smile.'_

Caiden straightened up, eyes wide. Who said that? He whipped his head around, looking around the room. However, he didn't see anyone aside from his moms and the dog.

"Caiden?" He looked over to see his mother watching him with concerned eyes. "Are you alright? What's wrong?"

He shook his head, glancing around briefly again. "Nothing, I just... Thought I heard something." Had he imagined that? It sounded so clear though... He must have just imagined it, though. There was no one there besides them, after all.

"Okay..." his mom said uncertainly, giving him a hesitant look before turning back to her previous conversation with Kimmie. Caiden shook his head, deciding he'd just imagined it. There was no way he'd actually heard what he thought he did. It was just his imagination.

"So, should we try it?" Kimmie asked, nodding towards the dog. Amelia nodded, but before either of them could say anything else, Caiden cut in, speaking up.

"I think... I think his name is Smile."

The two women frowned, surprised. "Smile?"

He nodded slowly. "Yeah, Smile. I think it's Smile."

His moms glanced at each other, then shrugging, turned to look at the dog. "Smile. Hey, Smile? Here, boy. Smile."

The dog tilted his head, wagging his tail a little. The two women looked at each other, grinning.

"Hey, it actually worked!"

"I know! How did you know that was his name, Cay?"

Caiden shrugged a little, but he wasn't really paying attention. He was watching the dog instead, keeping an eye on it. The dog looked back at him, eyes narrowed slightly. The dog then nodded his head a little and turned back to the two women, silently observing their excited chattering.

Resting his chin on his hand, Caiden continued to stare at the dog, lost in thought. There was definitely something odd about it. That dog was not normal. It's eyes were so... so human. So intelligent. And where had that voice come from earlier? Had he just imagined it?

' _There's something weird about this dog, and I'm gonna find out what.'_

* * *

 **A/N - ANOTHER CHAPTER? EGASP, I'M CRAZY. NO HOLDING BACK THIS WILD ONE!**

 **But yeah, here's another chapter for all you lovely FF** **people. X3 I really do want to get this caught up and there's only two more chapters to go after this. We're almost there, guys! We're almost there!**

 **Anyways, thanks for reading! I hope you liked it! And don't forget to leave a review and let me know what you think. ;) I'll see you all next chapter (so... tomorrow?) and I appreciate you making it this far. X3 Bye!**


	20. Chapter 20

That morning at the Royal Heights Inn was a tense one. Everyone was on edge and Sammy couldn't understand why. Nobody spoke all throughout breakfast, and as she came down the stairs with her bag, ready for school, she found them all quietly talking in the common room. Frowning, she paused in the doorway, stopping to listen in. Surprisingly, they were doing a good job of keeping their voices down, and she didn't catch much. It almost impressed her that the notoriously loud group of guests could be so quiet. But here and there she caught something, and from what she pieced together they were talking about their dog Smile. He'd run away just the other night, she knew, and she sympathized with them that losing a pet was hard, but she didn't understand all the secrecy that morning.

Finally taking notice of the brunette's appearance Tim cleared his throat, turning along with the rest of them to face her. It was silent for a moment as they stared at her, creeping her out a bit, and then Brian spoke up. "Well, um- Don't you all have school to get to or something?"

Nodding slowly, Sammy replied, "Yeah, we do." It was another moment before anybody moved, and then they all began to grab their bags, slinging them up over their shoulders and heading past her towards the front door. Still a bit miffed by their odd behavior that morning, Sammy followed behind, stepping out the front door and shutting it behind her. Everyone else was already down by the gate, and she could see that Lucas had just joined them, jogging the last few feet to the inn so as to catch up. Rolling her eyes as he immediately placed himself beside Lucy, she headed down the path to join them.

"Who's walking Sally and Ben to the bus today?" Lucy shoved her hands into the pockets of her black sweatshirt, shrugging her shoulders up against the chilly autumn air.

"I-I'll do it!" Toby immediately volunteered, shooting an arm into the air and grinning widely.

Sighing softly, Lucy rolled her eyes a little, adding, "Who's going to go with Toby to bring Sally and Ben to the bus stop?"

Toby frowned. "I can do it!"

Placing a hand on his shoulder, Violet smiled reassuringly, saying, "It's okay, Toby. I can come with you. Alright?" He looked reluctant, but after a moment he nodded, agreeing. Then the two set off, Ben and Sally in the lead as they headed for the elementary students' bus stop.

Watching them go for a moment, the rest of the group then turned, continuing on down the sidewalk as they headed in the direction of the school. They didn't bother waiting for Violet and Toby as they were all well aware that the two could catch up. They certainly had enough energy to, even this early in the morning.

Feeling her phone vibrate in her pocket, Sammy pulled it out, sliding open the new message as they walked. Her face contorted into one of confusion as she read the long, rambling message, causing her to slow her walk as she focused on it.

Slowing done to match her pace, Lucas leaned over to look at the screen, asking, "Whatcha reading?"

"It's a text from Mia..." She scrolled down with her thumb, continuing to read. Lucas began to read it over her shoulder, soon also looking confused. After another few moments, the two looked at each other, brows raised.

"So... Looks like today will be interesting..."

* * *

The second they walked into school they were all cornered by a spastic Mia.

"I'm going to fucking kill her! That bitch better watch her back because next time I see her I'm going to fucking rip her eyes out of her sockets and shove them up her-"

"Okay, okay, Mia! Calm down for a second! What are you talking about?" Sammy held up her hands, putting a pause to the shorter girl's rambling. Mia took a few deep breaths, face red from shouting. Then, once she was calmer, she began to speak again.

"Cindy Janson. She. Thing. Cay-Cay. Look."

Everyone leaned forward to look as she pulled out her phone, opening Facebook and turning the screen for them to see. There was a few moments of pause, and then everyone reacted, some gasping and others simply blinking in surprise.

On the screen there was a photograph of Caiden, smiling, sitting on a stone wall in a park. There were dark blue streaks in his black hair, and he wore a loose white tank top and blue jean shorts with a clearly photoshopped crown on his head. Four things were striking about the photo. One, none of them had ever seen him wear any color other than black. Two, none of them had ever seen him without his hoodie on. Three, he was smiling. And four, well... now they knew why none of them had ever seen him without his hoodie on. There were scars, in all lengths and directions, completely covering his arms, as well as a couple on his legs. They went from his wrists to his shoulders, some looking old and others a little more fresh. It was clearly an older picture, as he looked much younger and didn't have his lip pierced yet, but it was unsettling all the same. The caption underneath read, "Caiden Rochester- King of the emos."

"That bitch..." Lucas muttered, eliciting a glance of surprise from Lucy, as he didn't often swear. Jeff nodded in agreement, frowning, and Natalie wrung her hands anxiously.

Sammy looked back up at Mia, much calmer looking than the rest of the group. "Cindy Janson posted this?"

Mia nodded, still looking quite pissed. "Yes, she did. That dumb blonde bitch posted this to her Facebook this morning. Jason Teutmond sent it to me."

"Has Caiden seen it?"

"No, I don't think so. He doesn't have a Facebook- I checked."

Lucas nodded, shrugging his shoulders. "Then we just don't show it to him. He won't even know."

Mia frowned. "That'll be hard considering almost the entire school has already reposted it to their walls..."

"Shoot..." Sammy sighed, biting into her lip and frowning as she tried to think of how they could keep Caiden from seeing or hearing about the post. She may not know him very well - or really at all for that matter - but she still knew that he'd be upset if he found out about it. Caiden seemed like a fairly private person to her and she doubted he'd want something like this all over the school.

"Maybe we could-" Mia started talking, but then was immediately cut off as Lucas slapped a hand over her mouth, stopping her from going any further. She shot him a fierce glare, about to open her mouth again to ask what his problem was, when she saw what he was looking at. Violet and Toby had caught up, and they'd brought Caiden along with them.

"H-hey, guys!" Toby waved excitedly at them as they all approached, Violet skipping along beside him and Caiden trailing behind, hands shoved into the pockets of his black jeans.

Violet grinned, singing cheerfully, "Look who we found~!

Immediately slapping on her usual smile, Mia bounced over, standing on her tiptoes to sling an arm over the brooding boy's shoulders. He glared at her, attempting to shake her off, but as usual Mia was a leech, and his attempts were in vain.

"Morning, Cay-Cay! How are you today?"

Still glaring at her, he replied snarkily, "I'd be better if you'd get your damn arm off of me." He was ignored, though, as usual. He was beginning to wonder if he was a mute and didn't know it. That would explain why none of them ever seemed to listen to him.

Just then the bell rang for first period, making a couple of them jump. For a few moments none of them moved, all standing still as other students walked through the hall around them, and then Caiden finally spoke up again.

"Are we going to go to class, or...?"

* * *

It was second period and Lucy was sitting in study hall, non-discretely scrolling through her phone (she'd obtained one a week ago after bugging Masky about it) under the desk. Normally she'd be talking to E.J. right now, since he had study with her, but he was still in the hospital for another day, so she had nothing to do.

Hearing her phone make a small 'ding' sound, she glanced up at the teacher, checking to make sure they hadn't heard. He appeared to be asleep at his desk, though, so she was all set. Looking back down at her phone, she opened up the new text, seeing it was from Lucas. When had he gotten ahold of her number? Never mind, that wasn't important right now. Reading through the text, she sighed, resting her cheek on the palm of her hand. He was asking what she thought they should do about Caiden. Obviously, they couldn't tell him about the picture, but sooner or later he would find out anyways. And when he did he'd be pissed. Not to mention now they knew he was clearly a self-harmer, or at least had been at one point in time, when that picture was taken. Something like this could be dangerous if he was still in that sort of mindset.

Flicking her thumbs over the screen, she texted him back, telling him just not to say anything, and not to tell Toby. They all knew Toby thought of Caiden as a friend (though the feeling didn't appear quite mutual), and she had a bad feeling that if someone told him he'd probably accidentally slip and mention it to Caiden. It was best if Toby just didn't know.

It was silent for a few moments, and then her phone dinged again. The teacher was still sleeping, so she opened it up, reading the reply before texting back. They agreed it was best Toby didn't know, and Lucas said he'd talk to Mia to make sure she didn't mention anything either, as she tended to have a pretty big mouth and they didn't need her going off on a tangent only to slip up and tell Caiden.

Another text came in, and Lucy opened it only to see that this one wasn't from Lucas, but from L.J. He was out looking for Smile. She frowned, sighing softly and leaning her cheek against her closed fist. Smile had been gone for two days now, and they didn't know where he was. L.J. had been out looking for him, but to no avail. The dog had just taken off in the middle of the night and no one had seen him since. She didn't want to say she was worried, but...

Hearing a snort, Lucy jumped a little, looking up to see the teacher shifting in his chair. He was still asleep. Sighing, she ran a hand through her hair, looking back down at her phone.

* * *

It was lunchtime, and the table was unusually tense and quiet. Caiden glanced around at the group of normally rowdy teenagers, eyes narrowed suspiciously. Toby sat beside him, munching on a sandwich and talking animatedly through a mouth full of food. He didn't seem to notice that he was the only one talking.

Finally sick of the apprehensive atmosphere, Caiden sighed, slapping a hand down on the table and sitting up straight. "Alright, did someone die or something? Why is it so fucking quiet right now?"

Lucas shrugged. "I didn't think you'd be complaining. I mean, don't you always tell us to like, leave you alone or go die or whatever?"

"Yeah, but you never listen. You're usually too busy shouting over each other. So the fact that you can actually hear me right now leaves me feeling unsettled and maybe even a bit concerned."

"Aw, hear that?" Violet cooed playfully. "He's concerned about us. He really does have a heart."

"Go slip, fall, and die."

"And... he's back." Violet sighed. "You could just try being nice for once, you know."

Caiden shrugged, replying, "Nah, tried that once. No good. Just doesn't suit me."

Jeff cast the dark-haired boy a skeptical look, saying, "I think Caiden being nice might actually disturb me a little bit. It just wouldn't be right."

He nodded, folding his arms on the table in front of him, looking almost a little smug. "Exactly."

Just then a couple of girls walked by, giggling as they approached the table. Right as they were level with the group, one of them shouted, "King of the emos!" The two then darted away laughing and whispering to each other. As they left the other shouted back over her shoulder, "Kill yourself!" After that it was silent for a moment, everyone trying hard not to look at Caiden and horribly failing. Toby seemed confused, as usual.

Finally, Caiden shot them all a dark glare, growling, "What... Was that..."

"Um, a couple of bitches being bitchy?" Violet suggested.

"Sounds right to me," Lucy agreed.

He didn't seem to buy their excuses, and glancing around the table, finally settled his eyes on Mia, who hadn't spoken a single word all lunch. "You're awfully quiet..."

Looking up in surprise, the blonde rapidly shook her head, eyes wide. "No I'm not."

"Yes you are. You never fucking shut up, but you've yet to say a single word all lunch."

"Well, that's because I was forbidden to tal-" She was interrupted by Sammy's hand slapping quickly over her mouth, shutting her up. Realizing what she had been saying, she let out a muffled gasp, slapping her own hands up over Sammy's. Caiden now looked beyond suspicious. He looked furious.

Standing up from his seat, he ignored the chair clattering to the floor behind him, slamming both hands down onto the table in front of him. Multiple people jumped, and Toby nearly dropped his half-eaten sandwich, just barely managing to grab it before it fell to the dirty cafeteria floor. Making sure he had everyone's attention, Caiden shouted, "Somebody tell me what the fuck is going on right now! You've all been acting weird since this morning and now you're giving me some bullshit excuses for it too! Talk! NOW!"

It was silent a few moments, everyone looking away, ashamed. Finally, it was Lucy who spoke up. "Alright, this is stupid. I'm just going to show him." Pulling her phone out from her pocket, she pressed the screen a couple times, scrolling through a bit and then turning the phone, holding it out for Caiden to take. Frowning, he grabbed it, holding it up to his face and reading the screen. Everyone watched him carefully, tense and apprehensive of how he'd react. It was only a few seconds before he handed it back, teeth grinding in his mouth.

"I'm going to..." He suddenly let out a shout of frustration, slamming his closed fist on the table and making Toby drop his sandwich for the second time that day. Then spinning around, he stormed out of the cafeteria, doors slamming loudly behind him. The entire room went silent, watching this scene. Then after a few moments there was a murmuring of excitement, and soon the room was abuzz, everyone gossiping about what had just happened.

"Great, this is going to be all over the school by fifth period," Sammy sighed, running a hand through her short brown hair.

Mia stared at the closed doors still, slowly nodding. "Poor Cay-Cay..."

They were all still quiet, nobody saying anything, and then Toby stood up. "I'm g-going to go che-check on h-h-him." That earned a few nervous looks, but nobody said anything, and they all watched as Toby exited the cafeteria, following after Caiden.

"I don't like this..." Lucy murmured, resting her cheek against her palm.

Jeff nodded, leaning back in his chair and scowling. "He's gonna fuck it up." A prompt slap on the back of the head by Violet sent his chair forward again, him yelping and reaching up to clutch his head.

Toby walked through the empty hall, trying to figure out where Caiden had gone. The school wasn't all that big, so he couldn't have really gotten far. Peering around the corner, he was about to turn down the connecting hall when he heard a quiet sob from somewhere nearby. Frowning, he turned, looking for the source. It took him a moment, but then he realized that it was coming from underneath the staircase. Walking over, he cautiously slipped into the small, dirty space beside the old stairwell, peeking under the steps. And there he found Caiden, curled up on the dusty floor with his face in his knees, quietly crying.

"C-Caiden?" He slowly approached the boy, kneeling down beside him in the small, dark space. He just looked up at him, eyes red and a little swollen, tears trailing down his face.

"What the fuck do you want?"

Toby frowned, sitting down in front of him. "Y-you're crying..."

"Just leave me the fuck alone."

"Are-are you okay?"

"Go slip, fall, and die."

"What's wrong?"

Caiden scowled, eyeing the other boy with a mixture of despise and confusion. "How can you go through life being so fucking clueless about everything? You're so fucking cheerful all the time, don't you realize how fucking sucky everything is? People? Life in general? Are you that fucking stupid?"

Toby frowned, not understanding why he was saying such mean things to him. "What d-d-do you mean?"

"This is exactly what I'm talking about!" He ran both hands through his hair in frustration, clutching at his head. "You're fucking clueless. I swear, there's something fucking wrong with you. You don't listen, you don't understand what people mean when they're talking to you... Hell, you don't even know when someone is being mean to you! That other day, when Leone was talking to us in the hall, do you even know what he was saying?"

Toby frowned, still not understanding. "He sa-said we w-w-were boyfriends..."

"Fags, Toby. He was calling us fags. He was insinuating that we have hot, gay sex."

"I still don't get it..."

"Oh for fuck's sake." Caiden stood up, scowling as he hit his head on the underside of the staircase. Clutching at his black locks, he looked down at Toby, scowling. "You're so fucking useless. What is even your problem? You can't do anything on your own, Natalie always has to help you. You don't get anything. Hell, you can't even fucking defend yourself! I am shouting at you right now and I bet you don't even know why!"

He shook his head, shrinking back a little and blinking up at the other boy. "No, I don't..."

Caiden scowled again, running a hand through his hair in frustration. "Yeah, that's what I thought." Stepping around him, he went to leave, sneakers squeaking on the tile flooring. "Just leave me the fuck alone, alright? I don't need your sympathy, and I certainly don't want it. Not from someone like you."

Toby frowned, standing up and watching as he walked away. "Someone l-like me-me? I'm your f-fr-friend."

"No," Caiden turned, walking backwards so as to face him as he left, "no, you're fucking not." Turning back, he kept walking, hand running constantly through his dark hair. Toby just watched him go, not moving from his spot beside the stairwell. He didn't know what had just happened, but one thing he knew for sure was that it wasn't good, and that for some reason, he felt really sad because of it.

* * *

Masky sat on his bed at the inn, laptop set in front of him and finger trailing over the mousepad, scrolling through the site he was on. He had the day off today due to some scheduling thing, and so he had spent the entire morning in his room reading the creepypasta stories. There were lots that seemed completely made up ( ? Really? Ben would have an aneurism.), but there were some that were exactly true. For example, he'd read Jeff's story, which he had heard only perhaps a million times, and as far as he could tell it was completely accurate. Nothing stood out to him as being wrong, at the very least.

Sighing softly, he reached over to a plate set beside him, picking up the sandwich sitting atop it and taking a bite before setting it back. Then scrolling through the site again, he kept an eye out for any recognizable pastas. He noticed Ben's, and went to click on it, when another one caught his eye. 'Pretty Lucy'. Frowning, he moved the mouse over to it, opening it up.

Eyes scanning over the page, he scrolled through, eyebrows coming closer and closer together as time went on. Finally, he clicked back out of it, sitting back and looking up at the ceiling in thought.

"Huh..." he murmured, taking another bite of his sandwich. "Well now I know why she's so crazy, but it still doesn't explain why she's such a bitch."

* * *

School was over for the day, and Lucas, Toby, Natalie, and Violet were all leaving the building. Lucy, Mia, and Jeff had left before them, on their way to the hospital to visit E.J.. Lucy had tried to persuade Mia not to come, but clearly that had been to no avail. Sammy was at track practice and nobody had seen Caiden since his outburst at lunch.

"So I was like- excuse you, who do you think you're talking to? And so he said..." Lucas blocked Violet out as she continued chatting, waving her arms around excitedly to emphasize her point. Natalie was walking beside her, hands folded in front of her and head nodding politely every once in awhile to assure Violet that she was listening. Toby trailed behind the group, thoughts seemingly occupied and unusually quiet.

Shoving his hands into his pockets, Lucas glanced around, bored. It was getting cold out, the weather flipping slowly over from fall to winter. They hadn't had any snow yet, but it was getting there. He could smell it in the air.

Noticing a flash of movement nearby, Lucas turned, eyes seeking out whatever it was he had noticed. Only a moment later he saw Jane standing outside of a nearby building, looking around. She spotted him too, and raising an arm, waved to him. His face slowly spread into a grin, and raising an arm as well, he waved back. Then glancing at Violet and Natalie, who seemed occupied talking, and then Toby, who didn't seem to be paying any attention at all, he crossed the street, jogging over to meet her.

"Hey, Jane," he greeted, joining her as she started walking down the sidewalk, going in the opposite direction he'd been heading with the others.

"Hey, Lucas," she replied, flicking her long brown ponytail over her shoulder. Her breath clouded a little in the air in front of her, and he watched as it quickly dissipated, vanishing into nothing. "Fancy meeting you here."

"Yeah," he laughed, rubbing the back of his neck, "fancy that." He thought back to when he'd last seen Jane a couple days ago. Before she had left she'd kissed him. Admittedly, that had come as a shock to him. It may be hard to believe, but the only person he'd ever had an actual relationship with was Sammy, so that made Jane only the second person he'd ever kissed. Well- technically third, but he didn't think Sally Nickels from third grade really counted.

"So," Jane said, catching his attention, "what are you up to this chilly afternoon?"

"Oh, nothing," he said almost too quickly. "Uh, you? What're- what are you up to? Right now I mean? Or later?"

She let out a snort, shaking her head. "Nothing. I was just going to maybe walk around for a bit. Get a feel of the town. I still don't really know this place all too well yet."

"Oh, uh-" Lucas cleared his throat, attempting to rid himself of his stutter. "I could show you around a bit, if you'd like? I mean, if you don't mind the company."

She smiled a little, nodding. "Yeah, sure. That'd be fine. I could use a guide."

Lucas smiled too, nodding back. "Well then a guide you have."

Jane laughed, smile widening a bit. "Good."

* * *

E.J. sat in his hospital bed, an open book on his lap. He was stuck in there for another day and he'd nearly finished his book. He just wanted to leave already.

Hearing the door creak open, he looked up just in time for a flurry of blonde hair to smack him in the face. Next thing he knew Mia was on top of him, practically squeezing him to death and rambling at about a million miles per hour.

"Mia!" Lucy shouted, storming in behind her and yanking the short girl off of him. "E.J.'s injured, you can't just jump on him like that! You'll hurt him!"

The blonde gasped, hands flying to her mouth as she stepped back from the bed, eyes wide and apologetic. "I'm sorry! I forgot! Please forgive me, Cry-Senpai!"

"What?" E.J. asked, blinking in confusion. Jeff, who had entered the room behind the two girls, just shook his head to say he shouldn't ask. E.J. sighed, realizing that that was probably for the best.

Sighing, Lucy pushed a few strands of blonde hair from her face before setting a plastic grocery bag down on the bed by E.J.'s hip, opening it up and pulling out a book, a can of original Pringles, a cosmic brownie, a bottle of Coca Cola, and a pack of gummy bears. "Here, I got you the good stuff."

E.J. smiled, sighing happily and taking the things from her, placing them back in the bag and setting them under the bed, out of sight of the nurses. "You're an angel."

She just smirked, shrugging and replying simply, "I know."

"I still can't believe that they ban you from eating that stuff," Jeff commented, sitting down in a chair beside the bed, arms folded over his chest. "What a load of bs."

"I know, right? I couldn't live without sugar!" Mia agreed, nodding enthusiastically. Lucy just gave her a look, scowling a bit.

"I'm shocked."

"I know, I'm pretty fit for how unhealthy I am."

"That was sarcasm."

"Oh."

"Yeah, oh."

Jeff sighed, rolling his eyes. "Can we cut it with the cat fight, please? You're both pretty." Lucy immediately shot him a glare withering enough to frighten Medusa, and he rushed to amend himself, correcting, "Never mind. I meant you're both intelligent, strong, other feminist adverbs, women."

Lucy scoffed, turning away and going to sit on E.J.'s other side. "Whatever."

Mia blinked. "I'm confused."

E.J. just shook his head, murmuring, "Don't mind them. They're just... weird."

"Oh." She blinked again. "Okay. Well, I knew that, but uh... okay."

He nodded. "Yeah, okay."

"Okay."

"Okay."

"Would you quit fucking repeating each other?"

"Shut up, Jeff."

He glared at Lucy, snapping, "Why don't you shut up, bitch."

"You first, asshole."

"Jerk."

"Bitch."

"Idgit."

"Assbutt."

Mia glanced between the two, furrowing her brows. "Are they... Are they quoting Supernatural at each other?"

Releasing a heavy sigh, E.J. looked back down at his book, finding his place on the page and continuing to read. "Yes. Yes, they are."

* * *

Caiden went straight to his room that afternoon without saying a word to anyone.

Locking the door behind him, he threw himself down on his bed, ignoring his mom and Kimmie asking him questions through the door. He didn't want to talk to anyone. Not right now. Quite possibly not ever again.

Sighing, he lifted his head, staring blankly at the mound of blankets he was sprawled across. Then sitting up, he unzipped his hoodie, yanking the sleeves down over his hands and sliding them off, dropping the sweatshirt to the floor beside his bed. Rolling back the sleeves of his shirt, he looked down at his pale arms, which hadn't seen much sunlight at all since his freshman year. They were nearly completely covered in scars, and not all of them had fully healed. Some were still fairly fresh.

Growling in frustration at himself, he rolled his sleeves back down, flopping back onto his bed and staring blankly up at the ceiling. After a moment he closed his eyes, picturing the photograph in his mind. That stupid fucking picture from freshman year. God, how he regretted everything back then. He was so fucking stupid.

Sighing, he sat up again, pushing himself off the bed and picking up his hoodie off the floor. Tossing it back onto his bed, he headed towards the door, having every intent to just sneak out while his moms weren't looking and go for a walk by himself. However, upon opening the door he found the dog, Smile, sitting in front of him in the hall with his tongue hanging out of his mouth and eyes turned up towards him.

"The fuck..." Caiden glanced up and down the hall, not seeing either of his moms or Wendy. "Who the hell let you off the leash?" He looked back down at the dog, not expecting an answer. So naturally, he was quite surprised when he got one.

 _'I let myself off, dumbass. I know how to bite through a freaking knot.'_

Caiden blinked, staring blankly down at the animal. He knew he'd heard a voice yesterday, but he thought he'd just imagined it. However... "I know you did not just reply to me."

 _'Oh really?'_ The dog tilted his head to the side. _'And what makes you think that?'_

For a moment, he did nothing. Then slowly turning, Caiden walked back into his room, calmly shutting the door behind him and locking it. Then sitting down on the floor, he remained still for a moment. Then he lost it. "What the fucking hell?! Am I fucking losing it now too?! There is no god damn way that that dog is talking to me! No, I gotta be hearing things! There is no FUCKING way!"

 _'Geez, you sure do swear a lot, don't you?'_

Caiden groaned, clutching his head. "This day can't possibly get any worse..."

 _'Oh, I beg to differ.'_

"Will you just shut the fuck up?!"

There was a brief moment of silence, and then Caiden heard his mom's voice quietly speak up from the other side of the door. "Caiden? Sweetie? Are you... alright? Who are you shouting at?"

For a few moments, nothing happened, and then the sound of a lock sliding out of place sounded and the door slowly creaked open. Peering through the crack, Caiden glanced first at his mom, and then the husky sitting by her feet, panting and looking up at him with a seemingly innocent expression. "How long have you been there...?"

"Just a bit. I heard you screaming from downstairs..." she replied a bit slowly, watching as he glanced between her and the dog. "Are you sure you're alright?"

Nodding, distracted, he replied, "Uh, yeah. I'm fine. Great."

"Okay... If you're sure."

He nodded again. "Yeah, I'm sure. All good."

"Okay then..." She cast him another reluctant look, clearly concerned, and then turned away, heading back towards the stairs. As she left the dog got up to follow her, tail slowly sweeping along behind it.

Glaring at the furry creature, Caiden murmured so his mom wouldn't hear, "I'm onto you."

The dog paused for a moment, and then turning slowly, Caiden was terrified to see a near-human grin on its face. _'Spread the word.'_ The dog then turned away again, tongue poking back out of its mouth as it followed after his mom, nails clicking on the wooden floor. Caiden just stood there watching it go, completely speechless. He didn't even know what to think anymore.

* * *

Lucas dropped Jane off at her apartment before heading back home. Upon getting there, however, he found the house dark and the driveway empty.

Sighing, he mumbled, "I guess they're not home yet..."

Walking up the front path, he pulled his keys from his pocket, fumbling with them for a moment before unlocking the door and letting himself in. He flicked the lights on, shutting the door behind him and kicking off his shoes. Heading straight upstairs, he walked into his room, shivering as a blast of cold air hit him. He'd left the window open.

Not bothering to turn on the lights, he went straight to the window, closing it and drawing the curtains shut. Then dropping his bag onto the floor, he collapsed on the couch, closing his eyes and folding his arms underneath his head. It was peaceful, the house completely silent and the room dark, still chilly from the cold night air the window had been letting in.

Breathing out slowly, Lucas listened to the sounds of cars passing by occasionally on the street outside his window. It'd been a long day, what with all the stuff that happened with Caiden and then him spending the entire afternoon showing Jane around.

He smiled, thinking about Jane. She was actually pretty cool. She seemed really smart and she listened really well. She was also a great conversationalist. Not to mention she was pretty. That was always a bonus.

But then, frowning, he thought about Lucy and Sammy. He was still in love with Sammy. He always would be. But was it possible to be in love with more than one person at a time? There was just something about Lucy that he couldn't put his finger on, and yet it enthralled him- excited him. He really felt like he could be himself around her. And then there was Jane again...

He sighed, rolling over onto his side, snuggling his face into the crook of his arm. Sammy had once told him, a long time ago, that he fell in love too easily with all the wrong people. Could that be true? He really hoped not... He couldn't help it if he had a bigger heart than most, or if maybe he was a bit more emotional than normal. That was just the way he was.

His thoughts began to trail off as he grew more tired. Shifting, he got into a little more comfortable position. There was a huge King-sized bed across the room, but he was too tired to move to it. Instead he allowed himself to slip off to sleep there on the couch, hoping he would dream of something nice, but knowing instead that the hours he spent not waking would just be filled with sheer, unpenetrated darkness...

* * *

 **A/N - MEOW. I TOLD YOU I WOULD POST ANOTHER ONE TODAY. HA.**

 **crazy dragon ninja - Oh, wow. XD You have no idea how long I laughed after reading that. That's awesome. You're awesome.**


	21. Chapter 21

Typically, Friday morning is a cause for excitement among high school students. This morning, however, seemed to be the exact opposite.

Dragging themselves in through the doors of Eren High, the pastas headed silently to their lockers, no one saying a word. Even the normally hyper Mia was quiet, trailing along behind Sammy with her books tucked neatly into her arms. It was almost unsettling the stark contrast to their usual behavior.

Sighing, Lucy closed her locker with a slam, making Lucas jump. He glanced at her, but the deadly glare she shot him told him not to say a word. She seemed to be in a bad mood this morning...

"Hey, fag!" They all turned at the sound of an all too familiar voice. Leone stood towering over Toby, a smirk on his freckled face.

"What's up, fag? Where's your boyfriend, huh? Emo-Boy go home to cry to his mommy?"

Toby blinked, seeming confused. "W-what?"

Leone laughed, a short, barking laughter. It sounded like a choking hyena.

"Hey, asshole, leave him alone." Leone turned at the sound of Lucy's voice, immediately dropping the smirk and replacing it with a frown.

"What do you want, bitch?"

Lucy growled a bit. "I thought I told you not to call me a bitch, ass."

"Ha," he laughed, "funny. You think you can tell me what to do."

She narrowed her eyes. "You want me to break your stupid freckled nose again?"

"U-uh, actually, th-that was my nose that got broken..." Toby spoke up timidly, raising a hand. He was ignored, though, and so soon he lowered his hand again and fell silent.

Leone scoffed, placing a hand on his hip. "Why don't you just mind your own business, huh? This has nothing to do with you."

"This has everything to do with me. That's my friend you're messing with!" she snapped. She didn't seem to notice the looks of surprise she was receiving from Lucas and Toby. Neither one could believe that she had just referred to Toby as her friend. She, however, was far too riled up to realize her mistake.

"Yeah, well what are you going to do about it?" he asked, leaning forward and down to smirk in her face.

In another moment her fist flew.

* * *

First period was lonely that day. Toby sat alone at his table, head resting on his folded arms. The teacher was talking, he knew, but he didn't really pay her much attention. He was too busy thinking about the empty seat sitting next to him and who usually occupied it.

Caiden hadn't shown up to school that day. Honestly, no one was really all too surprised about that. They hadn't expected him to. Still, Toby couldn't help but wish that he had. He didn't know what he would say to him if he were here, but he would've said something. Probably. And he didn't like not knowing if his friend was okay either.

He had to pause himself there. No, not friend. Caiden had made that very clear. They were not friends, no matter how much Toby wished they were, or how much it hurt knowing now that they weren't. But there wasn't really anything that he could do about it. If Caiden didn't want to be his friend then... Well, then that was that. He had no say in the matter. It wasn't his choice.

Sighing, Toby buried his face in his arms. He couldn't see now, and he knew the teacher would get mad at him for not paying attention, but he didn't really care. He just wanted his friend back.

* * *

Mia didn't show up to lunch. Nobody commented on it, but they all noticed. Only Sammy knew why she wasn't there. She didn't say anything though. She just sat there quietly, eating her sandwich and avoiding looking anyone too directly in the eyes.

* * *

It was cold outside. Shivering, Mia pulled her coat closer around her, stamping her feet on the ground and breathing out a cloud of foggy air. It had yet to snow but she could tell that it was coming. The smell of it was in the air. It was only a matter of time now until the snow came and soon after the world would be covered in glittering white. Until that happened, though, it was just gray and cold. The world somehow felt lonely.

Seeing movement by the side door of the school she perked up, standing tall and smoothing out the wrinkles in her coat. A moment later a somewhat tall girl with pretty fair skin and long blonde hair stepped outside. She was dressed simply in blue jeans and a gray sweater with a soft pink scarf wrapped around her neck. Her chocolate brown eyes were framed by curled black lashes and her light pink lips looked soft and round. Her hair shone healthily and fell in neatly rushed strands over her shoulders, her bangs clipped back with a little black barrette. Her makeup was light and she had a warm, welcoming aura about her. Mia hated the bitch.

"Cindy!" Mia called, the anger in her voice obvious. Cindy turned, looking at the much shorter girl in some surprise. Clearly she hadn't expected any company out there.

"You fucking bitch," Mia went right off, storming her way across the frozen pavement to meet the girl. She stopped in front of her, anger burning in her eyes and the defiant look on her face matched by the curled fists at her side. "Where on earth do you get off posting something like that about Cay- Caiden!" She had to correct herself, realizing that now was not the time to be using his nickname.

Cindy said nothing for a moment, just looking down at her in surprise, glossy black eyelashes blinking slowly. Then she turned thoughtful, shifting her weight to her hip and gnawing thoughtfully on one french-tipped nail. "You know Caiden? I take it you're his friend then? Maya, right?"

She narrowed her eyes. "It's Mia. MEE-AH."

"Oh," Cindy replied, blinking, "sorry." She didn't sound sarcastic, but she didn't sound terribly apologetic either.

Mia sighed, crossing her arms and glaring at her. "So? Care for an explanation?"

"No." This time there was no hesitation in her answer. "I don't think I really need to explain myself. After all, all I did was add the caption. Really, it wasn't like I put those scars there or anything. He did that to himself."

The shorter blonde looked furious now. "You embarrassed him by posting that photo online for everyone to see and allowing it to spread around the school. What you did was harassment and bullying and we could get you suspended for that."

Cindy snorted a little, pushing her straight blonde hair over her shoulder. "Yeah, good luck with that. You think the school board really cares? Principal Elliot isn't going to do anything about it, I can tell you that for sure. Besides, like I said, all I did was post it. It's not my fault everyone decided to share."

Mia grit her teeth, knowing she was right. She hated it. "Where did you even get that photo? I doubt he just handed it over to you."

A smile slipped across Cindy's face, and fixing her pink scarf, she said, "Why don't you ask Caiden about that? I'm sure if you're really his friend then he'll tell you." Then with that she walked away, heading off down the street on her early release. Mia, who did not have the same privilege, just ground her teeth together, spinning on her heel and storming back into the school. She hated how calm that girl could be. Even more, though, she hated the fact that she could be such an evil conniving bitch and yet act the complete opposite of a mean-girl. Cindy was sweet, and friendly, and nice, and genuinely pretty. Mia hated that.

* * *

L.J. sat in the common room at the Royal Heights Inn with his face buried in his hands. He'd spent the last few days searching all over for Smile, but it was to no avail. He was nowhere to be found. The whole predicament was beginning to really stress him out. He had no idea what had happened. He just freaked out all of a sudden, and then next thing he knew, he was gone.

Sighing heavily, he wove his fingers through his hair, closing his eyes. Just then he heard someone entering the room. It was quiet at first, and then, with a small "tsk", Grandmama said, "Honestly, Jack, pick yourself up. I know you're upset, but there is absolutely no need to be stressing yourself to no ends like this."

Looking up, L.J. met eyes with the old woman. Of all the pastas he had gotten to know the spitfire of a woman best. Unlike everyone else, he had nothing to do with his days, and so he spent the entire time there at the inn, often times helping her with the cooking and cleaning and such. And because he knew her the best of all he understood that when she spoke so sharply she was really just concerned and looking to cheer him up. It was appreciated and all, but...

"Sorry, I just don't know what to do," he sighed, removing one hand from his face while allowing the other to run fretfully through his hair. "He was my responsibility and yet I somehow just allowed him to run off on me like that. And now we can't find him, and..." He sighed again.

She smiled sympathetically. Then pausing a moment, as though deciding what to say, she suddenly clapped her hands together.

"Why don't we go do some shopping? There's a couple of things I need to pick up in town and I could sure use some help carrying everything."

L.J. thought about it for a moment. Should he really be wasting his time helping some old woman with her groceries? But looking at her cheerful expression, he realized that she was just trying to help him, and that honestly, whether he liked to admit it or not, it probably would be a kinda nice distraction from his current predicament. And so sighing again, he nodded, standing up from the couch. She just clapped her hands together again, smiling brightly as she went to go get her wallet and shopping list. A few minutes later they were out the door and headed to the car.

* * *

It was dark in his room despite it being just past noon. The curtains were closed and the lights were all off. The door was and had been locked all day. He'd hardly moved from his bed.

Burying his face into a pillow, Caiden blew out a huff of air, bored and frustrated. He hated being stuck in his room all day like that, but he didn't really have much choice. It was either that or go outside just to get yelled at by his mom and Kimmie. Or go to school and get tormented and made fun of by everyone there. Honestly, the last thing he wanted to do was leave that room. He'd rather die.

Hearing a knock on his door he buried his face further into the pillow. There was another knock but he just ignored it. He knew better than to answer.

"Caiden?" It was his mom. "Caiden, honey, are you going to come out at any point? It's alright, we're not going to ground you or anything, we just want to make sure that you're alright and that you eat something."

"What do you mean we're not going to ground him? Of course we're going to ground him, he's locked himself in his room since last night and refused to come out!" He could hear Kimmie loudly whispering to his mom. She never could be quiet no matter how hard she tried.

"No, we're not going to punish him!" his mom whispered back. "Clearly he is upset or something. I'm worried. I'd rather focus on making sure he's alright than punishing him for not going to school."

Caiden listened to this all with little interest. He honestly couldn't care less if they grounded him or not. It didn't matter. He didn't plan on ever leaving his room again anyways so it wasn't like there would be much point to it. Grounding him would be like telling a prisoner he can't leave his cell. It was redundant.

"Caiden!" His mom started to yell through the door again. "Please come out. At least eat or something. Please? Caiden?"

He continued to ignore her. He didn't want to have anything to do with the outside world. He hated it out there. He'd rather just stay in his room until he slowly rotted away.

They continued to plea with him for awhile, but after so long of him not answering they finally gave up and went away. He was relieved. He didn't want to deal with them anymore. It was tiring.

At some point he wondered again about the dog. Since he hadn't left his room all day he wasn't sure where it was or what it was doing. For all he knew it'd been sitting in front of his door the entire morning just waiting for him to leave. He doubted it. There was definitely something wrong with that dog, though, and so even if that had been the case he probably wouldn't have been all too surprised. That thing was a monster from anyone's worst nightmares. That human-like grin still haunted him.

Sitting up on his bed, he stared blankly down at his bare arms. They were pale. Maybe a little sickly. He knew he wasn't the healthiest looking person in the world. Perhaps a tad too thin. A tad too pale. His black hair and dark brown eyes didn't help either. All they did was make him look even more ghostly than he actually was. And then there was the matter of his scars.

There were scars completely covering both his arms. He knew without even looking that they existed on his legs, ankles, and even his sides too. They were everywhere. If he could reach it with a razor or a knife then chances were they were there too. He wasn't proud of them- not by any means. Some people would call them "battle scars". He called them mistakes. He called them stupidity. He called them the bane of his miserable fucking life.

Gently poking a fresher one, he winced, feeling a sharp sting of pain. That one was only a few days old and still hurt. There were a few others that weren't very old either. Some a few months, some a few weeks, some only a few days. Three were from last night. Two were from that morning. All five were bound with bandages he kept hidden in his room. The rest of the scars were older, many having been created years ago, but they were deep enough to have remained, though some were more visible than others.

Sighing, he let his arms both drop to the bed. There was no point in moping about it. It was what it was. And now everyone knew. Everyone knew that he, Caiden Rochester, was a self-harmer. They knew that he wasn't as tough as he seemed. He was a weakling. He was fragile. And now they all hated him for it.

Lying back on the mattress, he stared up at the ceiling. It was plain white: nothing too interesting there. However, it wasn't the ceiling he was really thinking about. No, it was Toby who occupied his mind.

 _'Yesterday I yelled at him,'_ he thought. _'Why did I do that? I'm so stupid. I was upset and all, but that's not really an excuse, is it...? No, it's not.'_

He frowned, rolling onto his side. He hadn't meant to go off on him like that. He really hadn't. When he'd stormed off on his own he honestly hadn't expected for anyone to follow him. So when Toby suddenly showed up, clueless and naive as ever, it surprised and somehow even enraged him. Toby was always butting his way into Caiden's life, not minding his own business, and when he came to him yesterday, not understanding why he was so upset, it made him mad. He didn't like people seeing him like that, and he especially didn't like them pitying him or seeking to "help him" as they would put it. He didn't need anyone's help or their pity.

Still, no matter how much he tried to justify it to himself, he was still mad at himself for going off on Toby like that. It was clear that Toby wasn't the brightest in the world. Caiden didn't know for sure whether there was something wrong with him or not, but he was certainly dependent on other people, and the way Caiden had treated him yesterday was not okay. He knew it wasn't. He knew. But he still did it anyway.

Groaning, he rolled onto his back again, throwing an arm over his face. "Why did I tell him he wasn't my friend...? I'm such an idiot..."

* * *

Lucy spent that entire afternoon in detention, and when she left school that day she was even more pissed than she had been that morning. Fearing for their lives, everyone else walked a few paces behind her, not wanting to get too close in case she should lash out. Due to her present state of mind their fear wasn't totally unjust.

"I can't believe I got a fucking detention. For defending someone too! I mean, what the hell?! It's so stupid!"

Violet and Natalie glanced at each other apprehensively. They could tell that this was going to be a long day. Jeff, however, did not seem to have picked up on the same thing.

"Hey, calm down, will yah? You're being such a fucking drama queen."

Lucy whipped around, fixing him with a dark, malicious stare. "You want me to break your nose too?"

He blinked before glaring at her. "Why don't you try?! I dare you!"

Before Lucy could get to him Sammy intervened. "Guys! Come on, no fighting, please! Besides, we got to get back to the inn to welcome E.J., right?"

Both teens paused, realizing she was right. And after all, they were E.J.'s best friends, and so welcoming him back from the hospital was their first priority. So, begrudgingly agreeing, they turned away from each other, marching on towards the inn in silence.

* * *

When they got there Grandmama, L.J., Masky, Hoodie, and E.J. were already sitting on the porch. It was a long, wide porch that wrapped around the entire inn. It was rarely used since it was November and rather cold out, but right now they were all sat out in the chairs and on the wooden swing, bundled up in warm clothes and drinking mugs of coffee and hot chocolate. A plate of warm cookies sat on the table in front of them.

E.J. looked up, raising a hand in greeting when he saw them. "Hey! Welcome back."

Lucy and Jeff both sped up, practically shoving each other in their rush to get to the front porch. Then climbing up the steps, they both went over to him, eagerly welcoming him back.

While they both hovered over E.J. everyone else went up to talk with Masky, Hoodie, Grandmama, and L.J.

"Hello, kids. How was school today?" Grandmama asked kindly, smiling at them all.

"Good," Sammy replied, going to sit next to her grandmother. "Lucy got in trouble again."

"Way to throw me under the bus!" Lucy hissed. Sammy ignored her.

Masky sighed, setting down his mug of coffee. "What'd you do this time?"

"Nothing!" He gave her a disbelieving look. "Honestly, I didn't do anything! That jerk Leone was trying to mess with Toby and so I broke his nose! I was in the right!"  
He let out another sigh. "Really, Lucy... So you got mad and picked a fight?"

"No, I was defending Toby!"

He still didn't seem to believe her, but before he could really say anything about it Lucas cut in. "She's telling the truth. She really was just protecting Toby."

Masky blinked, staring at him a moment, before turning back to Lucy again. "Really?"

She huffed, crossing her arms. "Yes, really."

He paused a moment, seemingly unsure of what to say. Eventually he just came out with, "Oh."

She glared. "Yeah, oh."

It was silent another moment, and then Lucy turned and stomped into the inn, the door slamming shut behind her.

Grandmama tsked. "Well, someone is feeling in a sour mood today."

Masky nodded, sighing and picking up his mug to take a sip from it. "You can say that again."

Another moment of quiet passed before Natalie spoke up. "So, E.J., how are you feeling?"

He let out a soft breath, looking down at his casted leg. "Well, better than I was. It'll be awhile before I'm all healed, but I'm out of the hospital at least, which is better than nothing. I'm just glad to be back here."

"You think you'll be going back to school on Monday?" Lucas asked.

Jeff scoffed. "I wouldn't. I'm not even injured and _I_ don't want to go back to school on Monday."

"Yeah, well, you kind of have to, so..." Hoodie said, taking a sip of his cocoa and shrugging. Jeff glared at him but he cheerfully ignored it.

E.J. took a sip of his own cocoa before saying, "Yeah, I'm going to be going back to school on Monday. I'm healed enough so it shouldn't be a problem. Besides, I've been sitting around for so long, I don't really want to come back just to sit around here too."

Sammy nodded. "Fair enough."

Just then Ben and Sally came running through the gate and down the path. Racing up the front steps they both practically flew over to E.J., all excitement.

"E.J., you're back!" Sally cheered, hugging him.

"Hey! Glad to see you back here again! I was worried," Ben said in his oddly mature voice. "I would've gone to visit you but they never bothered to bring me along." He shot a glare at Jeff.

Jeff shrugged. "Sorry. I kinda forgot you were here."

'What do you mean you forgot I was here?!"

"I dunno, the author like never writes about you."

"Well that's not my fault! They have a hard time finding places to fit me in is all!"

"Guys!" Sammy hissed. "No more breaking the fourth wall! That's against the rules, remember?!"

They both looked at her sullenly. "Sorry..."

Masky sighed - he seemed to do that often - and stood up from his seat. "Alright, it's getting cold. I think it's about time we move inside." Everyone else nodded in agreement and stood to follow him. They all went into the common room and sat down on the couches and armchairs in there. Grandmama placed the plate of cookies down on the table before going to make some more coffee and hot chocolate for everyone. Sammy and Sally went along to help and Lucas followed behind them obediently. That just left the pastas alone by themselves, with the exception of Lucy, who had gone upstairs, and Toby, who seemed to have wandered off at some point while they were talking.

"So," Jeff began, leaning back on the couch and folding his arms behind his head, "I take it you still haven't found Smile, huh?" L.J. immediately seemed to deflate, slumping over and shaking his head. Jeff grimaced in response, not saying anything more.

"It's alright," Hoodie said, "I'm sure he's fine. Maybe he just needs some time to cool off on his own."

"Or maybe he's dead," Jeff muttered under his breath. Violet quickly elbowed him in the ribs, though, and so he shut up.

"What I want to talk about," Masky spoke up, "is what happened with Lucy today."

Ben frowned. "What about Lucy? Did she do something again?"

Masky sighed, running a hand stressfully through his hair. "She defended Toby today at school. Defended. As in, she was being protective of him."

Hoodie frowned. "I don't get it. Why's that weird?"

"It's weird," Jeff said, "because she fucking hates all of us. She would never normally protect any of us. She'd sooner just kill us herself. Except E.J., maybe." The brunette gave him a cool look but said nothing.

"Jeff's right for once," Masky sighed. "Lucy is a bit odd, and typically I could never even begin to imagine her doing something like what she did. It's so... out of character for her. It's weird."

"So she had an off moment." Hoodie shrugged. "It happens."

"That's not what concerns me though." Masky sighed again, folding his hands and resting his forehead on them, staring down at the floor. "I found Lucy's story. And I read it."

It was quiet for a moment. Then Ben said, "So?"

" _So_..." Masky emphasized, "all the other stories I found about us turned out to be true. Therefore I can only assume that hers must be too. And according to her story, before Lucy was - well, Lucy - she was a normal, nice, friendly, sweet high school girl with friends and family and crushes and all that normal high school girl stuff."

More silence. "I still don't get it," Ben said.

Masky looked up. "I think that Lucy is becoming human again. Physically we're all humans, yes, but I think that she's slowly reverting back to her old human personality and mindset too. I mean, I can't be the only one who's noticed how much nicer she's gotten since we all came here to Eren."

Everyone was quiet. Nobody could deny what he said. They'd noticed it too.

"And she's not the only one," he went on, "the rest of us are changing too. I've noticed it in myself and all of you. Ben's gotten less vulgar, Jeff's gotten more wimpy, Toby's gotten more codependent, Violet's less bipolar, E.J. doesn't hide his face anymore, L.J. is way more docile and housewifey, Hoodie is just like a straight up college student again- hell, I think Natalie's forgotten we used to call her Clockwork!"

Natalie blinked. She had forgotten.

"Do you see what's happening here? We're all becoming humans again. Real humans. With human emotions and morals. I saw Jeff freaking petting a cat the other day."

Everyone turned to look at the fifteen year-old and he blushed, sinking down in his seat and avoiding any eye contact.

"We are becoming real humans again. And I know nobody wants to say it, but the fact of the matter is that we're not pastas anymore! We're not killers, or thieves, or monsters, or anything! We're students, and workers, and people! You've all made friends, you go to classes, you worry about your grades, you shop for clothes, you text on your phones, you hang out and play video games- you're all human! _I'm_ human! Just the other day I caught myself watching the freaking Bachelor! I mean, this is ridiculous! When did we suddenly decide that all of this was okay? When did we decide that it was alright for us just to give up? To just simply live out our lives as normal human beings? When did this all become alright?"

Violet cut in, a flare of fury burning in her eyes. "What the hell do you mean, when did it become alright? It's always been alright. Nobody ever said it wasn't."

"That's not true," Jeff replied, scoffing. "None of us want to be fucking humans and nobody said it was alright. I know I sure as hell don't want to be some normal high school kid. It fucking sucks. All I want is my damn knife back."

"Well that's where we disagree," Violet said coldly. "I never asked to be the way I was and I have no intention of going back. I know you got a chance to hate humanity before you turned, but I didn't. I had that chance stolen away from me. And so you can say whatever you want about it, but if I can stay a human and take back that chance, than you can be damn sure that I am going to."

Jeff and Violet were now glaring at each other, and Jeff probably would have said something to her if Hoodie hadn't jumped in first. "Honestly, I kind of agree with Violet. I mean, at first I wanted to find a way to change back, but then I realized that I never actually wanted to be a proxy in the first place. It was against my will. I didn't volunteer. So after I've finally been freed from the thing that ruined my life why on earth would I want to go back? I realized it made no sense. I've been given the chance to be a real person again, and so I figure that's a chance I might as well take." He shrugged.

Masky looked back and forth between Hoodie and Violet. "You're kidding me, right? Really, both of you?"

Hoodie frowned, looking a little displeased. "I don't get why you're so freaking desperate to change back. I mean, you were in the same situation as me. I was under the impression that you hated being a proxy even more than me. So what's with all of a sudden wanting to be one again?"

Masky looked away, not responding at first. After a minute Hoodie looked away too, scoffing. It was after that that Masky finally decided to reply, speaking in a low, whispering voice. "I'm afraid."

Everyone stared at him in confusion. "What?" L.J. asked.

He sighed, then turning to face them all head on, he said a little more loudly, "I'm afraid, alright? I'm afraid to be a human again. I got so used to being a proxy under Slender's control that I don't even know how to be a regular person anymore. I try, I really do, and I'm sure to everyone else I seem to be normal or whatever, but..." He sighed again. "I'm not. I feel weird. I feel like there's something wrong. Something missing. I don't like it. I miss being a proxy, I really do. And I always hated it because it was against my will and I hated that, but now that I'm back to how I was before I realize how easy being a proxy was. When you're human you have to buy groceries, pay bills, work a job, provide for yourself and others, deal with all the legal involvements of being a human- it's ridiculous. Everything is just so stressful. But living in Slender's house it was all so easy. Everyone had their own room, nobody ever had to use money or pay bills, there was always enough food to go around... It just all worked so well. We had a sort of harmony that, as a human, is really hard to achieve. And I miss that. I miss living in that house with no real worries or responsibilities. That's what I want to get back. That's why I want to change again."

Everyone fell silent. When it was phrased that way it actually did make some sense. However, that didn't necessarily change any of their minds on the matter. Some still wanted to remain human, while others wanted to change. A few honestly just weren't even sure what they wanted anymore.

E.J. set down his empty mug on the table and took a cookie. "They're taking a long time with the cocoa, huh?"

* * *

That night Sally awoke from a nightmare bawling her eyes out. Natalie had to rock her back to sleep. When they got up the next morning Ben was missing. They found him lying beside the pond behind the inn, unconscious and half-drowned. An ambulance arrived within the hour.

* * *

 **A/N - AND NOW FF IS OFFICIALLY CAUGHT UP. FINALLY.**

 **Wow, it took me so long to catch you guys up. X3 It's alright now, though, because you're finally all caught up to Wattled and now I can post new chapters both here and there at the same time. That'll be nice!**

 **Anyways, I hope you liked it! (I just finished the next chapter so expect that up here pretty soon. ;)) Don't forget to leave a review (I do reply to them here!). And if you have any questions or comments you want to talk to me about directly, pm me! My pm box is always open and I love to chat. :) Bye! See you next time!**

 **crazy dragon ninja - Yeah, no kidding. XD I'll get the rope, you get the 2x4's. We can solve this problem in ten minutes flat!**


	22. Chapter 22

**UPDATE: Starting now this story will be updated every Sunday and Wednesday. This also means the chapters will be shorter, so no more hour-long reads. Yay!**

* * *

Sally awoke that night crying. Shaking terribly, she sobbed and bawled, wrapping herself tightly in her blanket. Soon enough Natalie was with her, hugging her and slowly rocking her back and forth. It didn't help much at first though. She was far too distraught to be eased by simple meaningless reassurances.

"Sally, calm down," Natalie whispered, rocking the small girl side to side. "It's alright. Whatever happened it was just a dream. That's all it was was a dream."

She didn't calm down though. And Natalie sat, helpless, as the small girl cried herself into a state of hysterics. Anytime the teen tried to talk to her Sally would just shake her head, muttering and mumbling something incomprehensible. Eventually, though, she cried herself to sleep. Then Natalie tucked her into bed, and with a kiss on the forehead, went back to her own bed and fell back asleep.

* * *

It was a slow morning at the Royal Heights Inn. While breakfast was normally ready by seven, today it wasn't ready until eight. And even then nobody came down to eat until eight-thirty. Even once the table had filled nobody spoke. They were all quiet as they ate, eye half-lidded and backs slouched.

Reaching over to grab the salt, Lucy sprinkled some onto her eggs before placing it back and beginning to shovel the food sleepily into her mouth. Beside her E.J. stared down at his plate of toast, eggs, and bacon with a blank stare, as though he'd forgotten how to eat but wasn't sure he cared. Jeff was face-down on the table. He hadn't bothered to grab any food yet.

"Can I go out to play? I'm not hungry anymore," Sally said quietly, legs swinging underneath the table. Her food had barely been touched.

"Yeah, that's fine," Hoodie sighed, waving her off. She thanked him before jumping down from her chair and running off. After that the table fell silent again.

A few minutes went by without any words being exchanged. Jeff had still yet to look up from the table and they were all beginning to suspect that he might have fallen asleep. Lucy was piling up her third plate of food and seemed to have no intention of stopping anytime soon. E.J. was still blankly staring at his own untouched food. Natalie had finished a small bowl of oatmeal and now lay sullenly with her head on one arm, staring at nothing. Hoodie looked to be in a grumpy mood and was glaring at his toast. Sammy kept missing a piece of egg with her fork and was sleepily trying to stab it. Violet had finished everything but one piece of bacon, and now sat there with it in her hand, staring distantly at it as though she no longer knew what to do. Grandmama was occupied in dumping way too much cream into her coffee. L.J. seemed to have fallen asleep while pouring syrup on his eggs and it now filled the entire plate with an amber pool. Toby, Ben, and Masky hadn't come down.

Sighing, Jeff shifted a little.

A sudden, piercing scream shattered the air. Jumping, the entire table all seemed to suddenly come awake, looking around in confusion to find out where that scream had come from. It was only a moment before Natalie realized it was Sally who'd screamed, and then they were all out the door and running towards the garden behind the inn.

When they got back there they found Sally sitting in the tall grass surrounding the small pond. She looked panicked and her eyes were red and wet with tears.

"Sally, what's wrong?" Violet asked, rushing over to the little girl. She didn't even quite reach her, though, before she realized why she'd screamed. "Guys! Get over here, now! It's Ben!"

Everyone else looked confused for a moment before running over to join her. Sure enough they were all shocked at what they saw and sped up the moment they noticed. Ben was lying on wet ground beside the pond, blond hair sticking to his forehead, clothes drenched, and eyes shut, mouth open.

"Oh my goodness!" Grandmama exclaimed, hands shooting up to cover her mouth.

Kneeling beside the boy, E.J. checked his pulse. "He's alive."

"Should we call an ambulance?" asked Natalie. She was biting her fingernails nervously.

Sammy nodded. "I'll go call one." Then turning, she ran back around the house to go get her phone from the kitchen.

Picking the waterlogged boy up, Jeff carried him towards the house, everyone else following behind. Violet picked Sally up and hoisted her onto her hip, carrying the sniffling girl with them.

They sat in the common room for awhile, the unconscious Ben wrapped up in a large blanket. After awhile the ambulance arrived and Ben was brought to the hospital. Hoodie rode along with him in the back. Grandmama drove Jeff, E.J., Violet, and L.J. there in her car. Everyone else waited at the inn for any news. Nobody knew what to think.

* * *

Masky chewed his thumbnail in frustration. He'd spent all of last night and the entire morning so far on his laptop, researching everything and anything he could find related to Slenderman, the pastas, etc. He'd learned plenty, but not particularly anything that he thought would be very useful. He also wasn't too huge of a fan of all the fanfiction and fanart he kept coming across. Who the hell was sick enough to ship Sally with Jeff? Not only was that a bad age gap but honestly, who thought that would actually work? All those two ever did was drive each other purposefully nuts.

Sighing, he ran a hand through his brown hair. There was nothing at all useful he could find. Why was this so hard? There had to be an explanation for what happened to them- there just had to. The main problem was figuring out what that was. What could possibly change someone from one sort of "species" to another?

Then he paused. Wait. Hadn't this already happened before? Most of them were actually humans originally. Then something happened to change them from humans into… well, whatever they were. So it had happened before, just this time it was in reverse. So what had made them change the first time?

Masky sat still for a moment thinking. It was different for everyone, what made them into pastas. He had become a proxy because of the Slenderman sickness, but most the pastas had gotten how they were due to some sort of traumatic experience, with the exceptions of the ones like E.J. who seemed to have been just born that way. So if what made them into pastas was different for each, then what could have possibly made them into humans again? The most tricky part of it was that they had all become pastas at different times and through different means. But they had all become human again at the same time and, presumably, through the same means. Not to mention that they'd all woken up in the same woods afterwards. Were they in the woods previous to waking up? Did it have something to do with the spot? He tried to remember but he wasn't sure. It'd been awhile now and he no longer recalled.

He was getting really frustrated now. So far he'd gotten nowhere with this. All he'd done was to make even more questions for himself. Now instead of just one question he had multiple and none of it had helped him come any closer to answering the first main one.

Opening up a document file on his laptop he wrote down his new questions. He kept anything useful he found in that document. So far it was only two pages long and even that was stretching it as he wasn't totally sure how necessary some of it was. He just really wanted answers, though, and so anything he could find remotely close to those he would write down if only to make himself feel better about it.

Sighing, he saved the file and then shut the lid to the laptop. He briefly entertained the idea of going downstairs and asking for an update on Ben. Natalie had come up earlier to let him know what had happened. He decided not to go down though. Sure, he felt bad that he wasn't more concerned about what had happened, but he was far too focused on their current predicament as a whole right now. Besides, Hoodie was really mad at him for whatever reason. He'd refused to talk to him all last night and gave him the cold shoulder that morning. Masky decided it was better to just leave him alone, and so he hadn't left the room all day.

Laying back on his bed, he closed his eyes. One person out of the hospital and another right in the next day. They sure were a mess. It scared him now that they were all human. It was different before when they were all stronger and had better healing abilities. Now though… At this rate someone was going to die. That was another reason why he wanted them all to change back. Everything seemed to have fallen apart since they turned. Now everyone was breaking and he'd decided it was his job to fix it.

* * *

It was almost eleven o'clock and Sammy, Lucy, Natalie, and Sally were all sitting in the common room together. Sally was still upset over that morning and they were trying to cheer her up.

"Do you want me to get you something? I think we have some leftover cake in the fridge," Sammy suggested kindly, smiling at the depressed little girl.

Sally shook her head no. "Thanks, but no thanks…"

Sammy frowned, and her and Lucy exchanged a look, but Natalie wasn't giving up so easily.

"It's alright, Sally," she said cheerfully, hugging the girl and pulling her closer next to her on the couch. "Ben's going to be alright. I'm sure of it. And the second they know anything they'll call us, alright? Don't worry, it's going to all be alright."

Sally nodded, but she didn't really seem convinced. She still had that sad, distant look in her eyes as though her body was there, but her mind had wandered to somewhere else. It was unsettling the other girls.

"Sally, it's gonna be fine. You heard Natalie, Ben's gonna be alright. So what's with the sad face?" Lucy asked, leaning forward with her elbows on her knees and her cheeks in her hands.

It was quiet for a moment and nobody said anything. Sally was still staring vacantly down at the rug. Finally, she whispered, "I dreamt about him drowning."

They all blinked. "What?" Natalie asked.

The little girl shifted uncomfortably, and then repeated, "I dreamt about him drowning. Ben. Last night. When I had that nightmare, it was about Ben drowning. I saw him lying facedown in the pond behind the inn just floating there. I- I think he was dead. It scared me a lot, but then this morning when I saw him…" She trailed off again, that vacant look returning to her face.

The girls all looked at each other, not knowing what to say. How could they comfort her for something like that? Nothing they said would do much. That was perfectly clear to them now.

"Sally…" Natalie began, speaking slowly as she tried to think of what to say, "I'm sure it was just a coincidence. After all, there's no way you could have known. Don't worry about it, alright? I know it's scary, but-"

Sally cut her off. "I saw him, though! He was just floating there and not moving! He was dead, Nat, I saw it! He was dead! Ben drowned!"

After that none of them knew what to say, and so they fell silent.

* * *

Lucas sighed, pulling his phone from his pocket and checking the time. It was five past noon. He was supposed to meet her there at noon. Where was she?

He told himself to calm down. She was only five minutes late. It just felt a bit longer because he'd arrived early. That was his fault, not hers.

Shifting in place on the park bench, he shoved his phone back into the pocket of his jeans, rubbing his hands together and breathing out a cloud of foggy air. It was cold out that morning, and despite the peacoat he had on he was still freezing. That was the thing about this time of year. The trees were nearly bare, though not quite, and the air was crisp and cold. However, it had yet to snow. It was one of those weird in between season months, and while it wasn't bad, it certainly wasn't his favorite either.

Hearing someone calling his name, Lucas looked up, grinning as he saw her finally arriving at the park.

"Hey, Jane!" he called back, standing up and waving. She waved back, grinning as she approached him. She wore a nice black jacket, purple leggings, and light brown boots. Her long brown hair was tied back into a high ponytail behind her head. Lucas couldn't help but blush a bit thinking how cute she looked. Jane was so pretty.

"Hey, Lucas," she said, stopping in front of him, a little breathless. "Sorry I'm late. I lost track of time a little, but I tried to get here as quickly as possible. I hope you weren't waiting long?"

"No, it's fine," he replied, waving it off. Of course, he neglected to mention the fact that he'd been waiting there for her for over a half an hour. Again, that was his fault for arriving so early. "Anyways," he continued, "what did you want to do?"

She grinned again, bouncing a little on her heels. "Well… I was thinking maybe we could go and catch a movie or something? If you don't mind? There's one I really want to see."

He nodded, smiling. "Yeah, of course! Sounds great to me!"

Her face brightened. "Great! Let's go then!"

Lucas walked side by side with her as they headed towards the local movie theatre. Eren was a small town, but the city next door was a bit bigger and had plenty of things for them to do. And even better yet, it was within walking distance. That was where the movie theatre, hospital, and big grocery store all were. In Eren they just had an old drive in, a small doctor's office, and a tiny locally owned mart, which was nice unless you needed things that they didn't carry or large amounts of foods for parties and such.

After ten or so minutes of walking they found themselves standing in front of the movie theatre. Jane led the way in, practically bouncing as she walked. Lucas followed behind, hands shoved into the pockets of his coat, with a smile on his face. She was so cute.

After buying their tickets they headed in. Two hours later they reemerged, chatting about the movie and laughing together at their favorite scenes. Lucas tossed the empty popcorn bucket in the trash on their way out and Jane quickly finished up the rest of her soda before throwing that in too. Then they stepped back out into the chilly November air and shivered at the sudden change of heat.

"I wish it was summer again…" Jane complained, hugging her arms against herself in an attempt to warm herself up a bit.

Lucas nodded in agreement. "Yeah, I'm already sick of the cold." It wasn't a lie. He may like the snow and winter and all, but he was honestly more of a summer person. He liked wearing tank tops and shorts and going to the beach or yachting with his family. That kind of stuff was fun and a bit more up his alley than building snowmen or sledding down hills.

Still walking side by side they headed back towards the park where they'd met up earlier. It was about three now and they were both sick of the chilly air and about ready to go home and warm up. Lucas personally was in a great need of some thawing and beginning to have fantasies of taking hot baths and napping in mounds of fuzzy thick blankets. Just the thought made the cold seem all the more biting in comparison.

Walking back over to the bench where he'd been sitting earlier, they both sat down for a moment to talk. Jane pulled her legs closely together and continued hugging her chest, shivering a bit. Lucas himself was back to rubbing his hands together and blowing warm breathes onto them in an attempt to alleviate the numbing sting.

"Hey, thanks for taking me to that movie," Jane began, turning to look at him. "And for paying too. I really appreciate it."

He nodded, smiling cheerfully. "My pleasure! It was no problem at all, really. I enjoyed it. I liked getting to spend some time with you today."

She nodded too, smiling a bit. "Yeah, me too."

It was quiet for a moment, and both teens occupied themselves with trying to warm up. Then, turning to look at Lucas again, Jane suddenly leaned towards him, using her hand to guide his chin in her direction. Before he could so much as comprehend what was about to happen it was already happening. She was kissing him. Again.

After a moment she pulled away and he was left feeling dazed and confused. She just smiled, a sweet, innocent smile, though he swore he caught a small hint of deviousness and smugness in it too. Then standing up, she said, "Thanks again, Lucas. I'll see you Monday." Then, before he could even say anything, she left, running off across the park and soon disappearing out of sight.

Lucas sat there for a moment, still. Slowly, he reached up and touched his fingers to his lips, feeling the slightly chapped skin on his cold fingertips. It took a few moments before he could even comprehend that she had kissed him. Let alone that it hadn't been the first time.

"What…" he mumbled, "just happened…?"

* * *

Toby sat on the edge of his bed, eyes fixed on the cellphone in his hand. He didn't have his own cellphone, but he'd "borrowed" Masky's for a bit, so it wasn't a problem. However, the fact that he had tried calling Caiden thirteen times and he had yet to pick up was.

Sighing, Toby flopped back on the bed, closing his eyes. He'd been trying to call the other boy all morning but it had yielded no results. Caiden hadn't picked up or called back. By now Toby was beginning to feel certain that he very well may never do either thing. It seemed as though he'd really meant it when he told him that they weren't friends. He honestly didn't want to talk to him, and now Toby was getting the cold shoulder. He was being ignored and pushed away.

Rolling onto his side, Toby curled into a ball, trying to think of happier things. Things like kittens and puppies and cupcakes. And waffles. Definitely waffles. Waffles with butter, and waffles with syrup, and waffles with blueberries, and waffles with whipped cream, and waffles with cinnamon, and waffles with…

For the next ten minutes or so Toby just laid there, thinking about all the different kinds of waffles there were and all the different kinds of ways you could eat them. It was honestly impressive what an extensive knowledge he had on the subject. If there was anything Toby knew then it was waffles. Waffles were practically his life.

He was broken from daydreams of waffles by the sound of the phone vibrating. Turning his head to look at his open hand lying a foot away from him, he saw the phone screen lighting up, buzzing and vibrating in his palm. Frowning, he sat up, holding it in both hands now and looking down at it.

Pressing the answer button, he raised the phone to his ear, saying, "Hello?"

"Toby?"

He nodded. Then realizing they couldn't see that stuttered, "Y-yeah."

"What are you doing with Masky's phone? Never mind- that's not important right now. Go get Natalie, please."

Toby nodded, getting up and running out of the room and downstairs to find Natalie. He nearly tripped in his rush, but made it to the common room just fine and found her sitting with Lucy, Sammy, and Sally. Then handing her the phone, he said, "It's Hoodie." She nodded, accepting it, and then she left the room to answer the call.

After that Toby trailed back up towards his room, a little sad. Sitting down on his bed, he laid back again, staring up at the ceiling. He knew it was silly, but he'd hoped that it was Caiden calling him back.

* * *

That night they all gathered in the common room for a little meeting. The pastas and Sammy all sat spread about the room, some in the chairs and others on the couches. Grandmama stood in the doorway, Violet sat cross-legged on the floor, Sally was curled up in Natalie's lap, and Lucy was on the arm of the couch. Masky hadn't come down.

"So," Hoodie began, standing up and directing everyone's attention to him, "Ben is fine."

There was a huge release of breath as everyone in the room sighed in relief. It'd been an anxious day for everyone wondering if the young boy was alright.

"Do they know what happened?" Grandmama asked, a hand clutched over her heart.

Hoodie shook his head. "No. It can be assumed, though, that Ben was playing near the water and somehow contrived to fall in."

Jeff frowned, crossing his arms. Ben was terrified of water. Why would he be playing so near to it? It didn't seem right. He didn't say anything about it though.

"The doctors said that there is a little bit of water in his lungs, but nothing enough to cause serious damage. They're keeping him overnight and then he can come back tomorrow," Hoodie went on, moving his hands around as he explained what the doctors had told him. "They suggested keeping him out of school for a couple days, though, to recover. Physically, he's fine, but they said that the experience of nearly drowning could be traumatic, especially for someone his age, and so they recommended letting him take a break to heal mentally."

Grandmama nodded in agreement. "I think that's an excellent idea."

"So… Ben's okay?" Sally asked quietly.

Hoodie turned to look at her, and then smiled, nodding. "Yeah, Ben's fine. He's all okay."

She nodded, burying her face back into Natalie's shoulder. She didn't say anything after that.

"So he's gonna stay home on Monday? Are you going to be here to watch him or am I on babysitting duty?" L.J. asked, crossing his legs and leaning back on the couch, arms folded over his chest.

Hoodie shook his head. "I'll stay. Normally I'd go to work with Ma- Tim, but he's too busy being a prick and so I'm going to be here all day. I'll watch Ben so you can do whatever it is you do all day."

Jeff snorted. "So you mean reading gossip magazines?"

L.J. shot him a glare. "I do not."

The teen raised an eyebrow. "I caught you reading People. Twice."

L.J. was about to retort again when Grandmama butt in. "Actually, he does quite a bit here while you're all off at school and work. He helps with the cooking, the cleaning, the shopping, the landscaping… He also spends a lot of time out looking for your lost dog. Jack is very busy here all day. He hardly has a chance to relax until after all of you have already gotten back."

Jeff rolled his eyes, but L.J. looked rather smug, smirking a bit and settling even more comfortably into the couch cushions. The subject was henceforth dropped.

"Oh!" Sammy suddenly exclaimed, clapping her hands together. "I almost forgot! I assume you're all going to be here for Thanksgiving, right?"

It was silent for a moment as they all stared at her. "What," L.J. began, "the heck is Thanksgiving?"

Lucy turned to give him a look. "You don't know what Thanksgiving is?"

"No," he replied, blinking. "Why, am I supposed to?"

"Thanksgiving is an American holiday," Sammy explained. "Basically, when the pilgrims first came to America they made friends with the local Native American tribe and they had a big harvest feast to celebrate their friendship. Now, every year on the last Thursday of November, we have a big feast to commemorate that first one."

"So… it's like a religious thing?" Violet asked curiously. She'd never heard of it either.

"Well, no…" Sammy said hesitantly. "It's more of a historical thing. Really, though, it's just an excuse to have a huge dinner and eat until you explode without feeling guilty about it."

"Ah…" L.J. and Violet said together.

"Sounds like fun," E.J. said, shrugging.

Grandmama chuckled, shaking her head. "Sometimes I wonder where you lot all come from. Really, you didn't know about Thanksgiving, Jack?"

"I didn't either…" Violet mumbled sadly.

E.J. shrugged. "Me neither."

Sammy looked at them all with mingled surprise and horror. "Have you all been living under a rock your entire lives?!"

Violet seemed to think about it for a moment before shrugging. "Yeah, sort of."

The brown-haired girl just sighed, hanging her head. "I give up on you all…"

Jeff opened his mouth, apparently about to say something, but then Hoodie cut him off. "I'm going to head back to the hospital now to see Ben. I'm going to be staying there with him all night, so I won't be back until sometime tomorrow, alright? Behave, please, and listen to Grandmama and L.J. If Mas- Tim comes down please tell him I'm at the hospital and not to expect me back, alright?"

They all nodded, murmuring their agreement. He paused, glancing them all over again, before apparently deciding he was satisfied. Then turning on his heel, he went to the door, grabbing his coat off one of the hooks and pulling it on before heading out. They all heard the door shut behind him, and then they went back to talking, casually chatting for the rest of the night.

* * *

When Hoodie got to the hospital the doctors told him Ben was awake. Heading up to his room, he walked in to find the twelve year-old sitting up in bed with his hands folded atop the sheets. He looked up as Hoodie entered.

"Hey," he croaked. His voice sounded sore and hoarse.

"Hey," Hoodie replied, pulling off his coat and draping it over the back of a chair before collapsing into it. "How are you feeling?"

"O… Okay," he replied, gently pressing his fingertips against the base of his throat. "My throat hurts, but… but I'm okay."

He nodded. Sore throats sucked, but it was better than actually drowning. Again.

"When can I go home?" Ben asked.

"Soon," he replied, leaning back and shuffling in the chair in an attempt to get comfortable. "They want to keep you over night but you can go back home in the morning."

Ben nodded.

"By the way…" Hoodie paused, hesitant to ask. It was important, though, so… "Do you remember what happened…? Like, how you fell in, I mean?"

Ben paused, staring blankly down at the sheets. He seemed to be thinking. Then frowning, a little upset, he mumbled, "No. I don't."

It was quiet for a few minutes after that. Ben didn't say anything and Hoodie didn't either. He knew that the boy had had a long day and didn't want to tire him with any more conversation if he wasn't interested. Instead he pulled out a book he'd brought with him and began to read.

After awhile Ben opened his mouth to speak. "I think… I don't want to be human anymore."

Hoodie looked up quietly. Then closing his book, he set it aside. "You ever wanted to be?"

"Well… no. Maybe. I dunno." Ben sighed a little before breaking into a coughing fit. After a minute it settled and he began to speak. "For awhile there I thought maybe I did. I mean, as much as I hate to admit it, being human is kind of fun. You can go where ever you want and do whatever you want. You don't have to hide. You can be normal." Here he paused for a moment. "But… I don't think I want to do it anymore. It's not right. What happened to us… it's not natural. As nice as it might be to stay like this, I know it's not real. It's a dream and one day we're going to have to wake up and realize that this just isn't us. Not anymore."

Hoodie still didn't say anything, but he sighed a bit, nodding. He knew what he was talking about, and he hated to say it but he did kind of agree. However, he didn't agree on one part. "I don't think that we are going to wake up."

Ben glanced at him, then looked back down at the sheets covering his legs and nodded. "Yeah. I know."

After that they fell silent again.

* * *

That night Sally lay on her side in Natalie's bed with tears in her eyes. After the long day they'd all had Nat had let her sleep with her, but by now the teen was asleep and Sally still lay awake. She couldn't stop thinking about her dream she'd had the night before.

She curled up even tighter, squeezing her eyes to try and rid them of the blurriness. Why did it keep happening? Every single time? Sally hadn't told anyone yet, but this wasn't the first time she'd dreamt of something bad happening to someone and then the very next day it happened. The night before Lucy fell down the stairs she had a dream where she saw her lying at the bottom of the steps unconscious. The strange thing was that there were flames engulfing her and Sally could see the skin on the right side of her face peeling away. Then there was the day when Violet freaked out at the hospital. The night before Sally had had a dream where she saw Violet running along a long hospital corridor screaming and looking over her shoulder. She was being chased by a man in a big white coat. When Jeff panicked and attacked E.J. in the middle of the night, that same night Sally had a dream that Jeff was fighting a strange boy with brown hair that turned out to really be a hideous monster. Then when E.J. went flying through the second story window of the inn, before she was awoken by the crash Sally had been dreaming about him fighting with someone and trying to escape, but then instead falling from a high place into a bunch of thorns. Even with Smile, the same night he ran off Sally had a dream about him going crazy and running away. Everything bad that had happened, Sally had dreamt about it first. It scared her. Why was she seeing these things? There was no way it could just be coincidences, but if not, then what was it?

* * *

 **A/N - Hey, guys! New chapter! (And this time it's ACTUALLY new!) I really hope you guys liked it and don't forget to leave a** **review! I'll see you all Wednesday! ;)**

 **crazy dragon ninja - Yes. Yes she will. And I know, poor Toby. I feel so bad for him. I don't like making things hard for him AGAIN but... but I haz to. ;-; It'll get better. Maybe.**


	23. Chapter 23

"I AM GOING TO FUCKING STAB YOU!"

"OH YEAH?! WELL COME AT ME, BITCH!"

"Guys!" Natalie looked between Lucy and Jeff, anxiously trying to think of what to say in order to calm them down.

"GET THE FUCK OVER HERE, L.J.!" Violet ran screaming across the front lawn of the inn, a snickering L.J. not too far ahead of her.

"WAAAAAHHHHHHHH!" Sally wailed, hugging her teddy bear and kneeling in the wet grass. "Toby hiiiiiiiit meeeeeeee!"

"N-no I didn't!" he cried, looking around panicked.

"YOU BETTER RUN, YOU ASS."

"I'M NOT GOING ANYWHERE, YOU RAGING BITCH."

E.J. sighed, pulling Natalie out from between the two screaming teens. He was beginning to worry she'd have a panic attack and pass out or something. Before he could tell her so, though, he was suddenly tackled down by a shouting Mia.

"CRY-SEMPAI! PAY ATTENTION TO MEEEEE!"

Slamming open the front door to the inn, Masky glared out at everyone. "Will you all please be quiet for once in your lives?!"

They all turned in unison to glare at him. "SHUT UP, SIR DOUCHEBAG!"

* * *

 _ **\- Earlier that morning -**_

* * *

When Lucy awoke that miserable Monday morning she found Violet already up, humming as she arranged a bouquet of flowers in a vase beside her bed. Frowning, she watched for a moment before asking, "Where did that come from?"

Looking up, surprised, Violet blinked at her. Apparently she hadn't realized the blonde was awake. Then looking down at the lovely blue flowers, she replied slowly, "Uh… Toby gave them to me…"

Lucy raised an eyebrow. "Toby? Why would Toby give you flowers?"

Violet shrugged, going back to arranging them. "Why not? He's like my brother. Siblings do stuff for each other like that, right?"

She gave her a deadpan look. "Uh… no." She thought of her own brother. They never got along and she couldn't imagine him doing something like randomly giving her flowers or vice versa. They just argued all the time.

Clenching her fist, she glared down at the comforter on the bed, angry at herself for thinking about it. _'You know better than that,'_ she silently scolded. She couldn't believe she'd let herself slip. She wasn't supposed to think about that.

Looking up, Violet frowned. "Hey, are you alright?"

Jumped out of her brooding, Lucy shot her head up, blue eyes wide. "Uh… yeah. Yeah, I'm fine. Sorry."

Violet nodded, but she didn't look all too convinced. She said nothing, though, as Lucy got up and got dressed. Then she watched the girl leave the room, shutting the door hard behind her.

"She's so weird sometimes…" she muttered, going back to messing with the flowers.

* * *

It was another dull day at school. E.J. was back, which was something at least, but Caiden had neglected to show up again. Toby seemed exceedingly depressed, but Mia, on the other hand, was practically bouncing off the walls.

"Cry-sempai! You're back!"

She hugged E.J. tightly, though it looked funny considering she was nearly two feet shorter and was basically just hugging his stomach. He just sighed, looking down at her with a blank expression on his face. He'd long given up on trying to convince this girl of… well, anything. Including his name and the fact that he wasn't particularly fond of hugs or talking. It was useless trying to talk to her.

"Yeah, this jackass finally got out of the hospital," Jeff said, elbowing E.J. roughly in the side with a smirk on his face. "Get it? _Jackass_? _Jack_? Right?"

E.J. just glared at him, saying nothing. The look alone was enough to tell Jeff exactly what he thought of his awful pun, but he clearly didn't care as he just continued to snicker at his own sense of humor.

Sighing, Toby slumped against his locker, staring forlornly at the one next to it. Natalie was giving him a sympathetic look, but Lucy on the other hand scoffed, crossing her arms over her chest and giving him a reproaching look.

"Honestly, are you just going to mope forever? He's not here- get over it. There's nothing you can do about it so just grow up and stop being a depressing fuck."

Natalie looked taken aback. "Lucy! You can't say things like that to him!"

She shot the other girl a glare. "I can say whatever I want. Besides, it's true. The rest of you are just to afraid to hurt his feelings so you won't say it. He's not a fucking kid. He can handle a little criticism."

The other girl bit her lip hesitantly, looking down at the floor. "Yeah, but you don't have to be so harsh about it…"

The blonde just rolled her eyes. "Whatever."

At this point Violet was looking rather irritated. "You know, just because you've got some sort of 'I'm so bad I don't care about anything' kind of attitude going on, Lucy, it doesn't mean you have the right to be such a bitch."

Despite the mass amount of noise in the hallway it seemed like everything went suddenly silent. Staring wide-eyed at the brown-haired girl, they all glanced between her and Lucy, wondering who was going to say what next. It wasn't totally uncommon for the girls to get into little quarrels here and there, but other than Jeff nobody really ever called Lucy a bitch to her face. And he always paid for it too.

Lucy raised her eyebrows, taking a step forward and standing tall, a challenging look in her eyes. "Excuse me…?"

"You heard me," Violet replied, stepping forward as well with her fists clenched at her sides, "you're being a bitch. You have no right to speak that way to either Toby or Natalie. Toby did nothing to you and Natalie was just standing up for him because you were treating him unfairly. At some point, Lucy, you need to learn to just grow the fuck up and leave other people alone."

Jeff whistled lowly and E.J. shot him a look that told him not to talk. For once he listened and went quiet again. There was no need to further invoke the wrath of either girl.

At this point Lucy looked livid. Her electric blue eyes were practically burning and they could all see her jaw grinding fiercely beneath the skin. She was well-known for her temper, even among the pastas, and they could all tell that she was just about reaching her threshold.

However, opposite of throwing a fit and knocking Violet out like they had all expected, Lucy instead suddenly turned on her heel, marching over to where Toby was slumping against his locker. Grabbing him by the collar, and ignoring his yelp of surprise at her doing so, she then marched off down the hall with him in tow. No explanation. Not a word. Nothing.

Suddenly reeling off down a separate hallway, Lucy dragged a protesting Toby along behind her. He complained and shouted the entire time, all the while trying to unfold her fingers from their grasp on his collar, but it was too no avail. She said nothing and answered no questions. She just kept walking.

After a minute she finally stopped, allowing a poor exhausted Toby to collapse to the floor by her feet as she looked down at the person standing in front of her, arms folded and a sinister glare on her face.

"Mia, where does Caiden live?"

The short blonde looked up at her, beyond perplexed. "What? Caiden? Why would I know where he lives?"

Lucy rolled her eyes. "You're a stalker. I know you know where he lives, so cough it up."

She shook her head defiantly. "I am not a stalker! I honestly don't know where he lives! It's none of my business!"

"No, it's not, but you made it your business anyway. Cough it up."

"I said-"

"Cough it up."

Mia pouted, crossing her arms over her chest and puffing out her cheeks. When this didn't seem to have any effect on Lucy, though, she sighed, dropping her arms by her sides. "He lives on 34 Jenson Lane," she muttered. "Gray house with the pride flag out front."

Lucy nodded, satisfied, before hauling Toby, who was still sitting on the floor, to his feet and dragging him forward. "Alright, Rogers," she said, voice firm and unnegotating, "now you're going to be cutting class today and going over there to check on that stupid demo boyfriend of yours. And you're gonna make damn sure that he comes back to school tomorrow or so help me I'll kick your moping ass. You got me?"

Toby nodded quickly. Then pausing, asked, "Wait, I have to sk-skip school?"

"Yes, Toby, you have to skip school."

"But-"

"The bell hasn't even rung for first period yet, so technically it's not even skipping. It's more like playing hooky, which isn't as bad."

"But-" "Honestly, Toby, it's one time. And our grades don't matter anyways, remember? Moron."

"But-"

"Toby, do you want to help Caiden or not?!"

That shut him up for a minute. Then, he said in an unusually quiet voice, "Yes."

Lucy nodded, slowly releasing her grip on his collar. "Good." The turning to look at Mia again, she asked, "34 Jenson Lane?"

The blonde nodded. "34 Jenson Lane," she repeated.

Looking back towards Toby, Lucy asked, "Got it?"

He nodded too. "Got it."

* * *

 _'_ _Why did I tell her I got it? I so don't got it.'_

Toby wandered aimlessly around town, his backpack hanging from his shoulders and his head and shoulders twitching occasionally. He remembered the address they gave him, however he had neglected to ask exactly where Jenson Lane was, and so now he just wandered about, checking all the names not he street signs and hoping he would happen to stumble upon it.

"This is h-hopeless…" he muttered, shaking his head.

Turning the corner, he sighed, making his way down the sidewalk. Noticing a small stone, he kicked it, watching it skitter across the pavement and then off into the road. A bird flew out from a tree somewhere and squawked overhead. A chilly breeze blew through and made him shiver.

Suddenly hearing a car beep somewhere further down the road, Toby jumped, looking up by instinct. To his surprise, he realized he was standing next to a gray house with a pride flag hanging out front. He walked up and looked at the address not he mailbox. Sure enough, it was 34 Jenson Lane.

Suddenly feeling excited, Toby knocked rapidly on the door, bouncing on the heels of his boots. He couldn't believe he'd managed to wander down the right street like that by accident. Talk about dumb luck!

Getting no response, Toby knocked on the door again, ringing the doorbell for extra measure. After a moment he heard a voice calling for him to calm down from inside and a moment later the door opened.

There stood a beautiful woman, probably in her early forties, with long, honey-blonde hair that fell in ringlets around her face and a simple but pretty green dress. She was rather small, certainly shorter than Toby and quite frail looking, and she had a very quiet and reserved air about her. She stood with her feet together and her hands folded in front of her. What Toby noticed msot, though,w as her dark brown eyes. Almost black. Just like Caiden's.

"Yes?" the woman spoke in a soft, gentle voice. "May I help you?"

"Uh…" Toby tried to think of how to word what he wanted to ask. "I uh… I kn-know Caiden. Could I see him?"

The woman was polite enough to say nothing about his ticking, though she seemed a tad surprised by his question. Smiling,t hough, she nodded, stepping aside and opening the door further for him.

"Yes, of course. Please, come in. Do you have a name?"

"Toby," he replied, walking in and looking around. Caiden's house was nothing like he had imagined. He'd been thinking more… vampire. It looked pretty normal though. The living room, where the door opened into, was painted a light gray and had a modern, but comfortable, style to it. He could see through an archway into a large, clean, white kitchen and a set of polished wooden stairs stood across the room. It was all very nice and neat looking.

"Caiden's room is upstairs," the woman said, leading him towards the staircase. "I'm afraid he hasn't actually set foot out of his room in a few days… Not even to eat… I'm rather worried. That's why I'm here and not at work." She paused, adding, "Ah, I'm his mom Amelia, by the way. Nice to meet you." Then reaching the landing and starting down the short hall, she continued, "I'm afraid something must have happened, but he won't talk to me about it. He's pretending like we don't exist. I know he's int here, though, because he keeps blasting his music."

She paused outside the door, sighing and turning to face Toby. "Could you make try and get him out of his room? Please? It'd be a huge favor to me, and to him,t hough he doesn't think so. He needs to eat and it's not healthy to cut himself off from others like that, so if you can do anything, please, try?"

Toby nodded, and Amelia smiled, seeming at least slightly satisfied, though he could tell she didn't really have much hope in succeeding. Her lips smiled, but it never reached her eyes. Then turning, she walked away, heading back downstairs to continue doing whatever she had been doing before he arrived.

Turning to look at the door in front of him, Toby took a deep breath, summing up his courage. He knew there was a very good possibility that Caiden would turn him away and not want to see him. There was also a very good possibility that he just wouldn't answer at all. But after coming all that way, he couldn't bring himself to not at least try. So, gathering together every last remaining scrap of dignity he had, he knocked on the door.

Silence.

Trying again, this time he cleared his throat, saying hoarsely, "Uh… C-Caiden? It's uh- i-it's Toby. I came to see-see you."

More silence.

"You didn't come to school, so I go-got worried. Mia told m-m-me where you live, though, so I th-thought I'd come. Your mom let-let me in…"

Still more silence.

"Caiden?"

He stood there for a minute or two, just waiting. After awhile, though, he realized that Caiden wasn't going to respond, and hanging his head, he turned and began to walk away.

Just then he heard a small click come form the door.

Turning, he looked over his shoulder to see the door slowly edge open and Caiden appear in the thin crack. He still hadn't said anything, but he looked at Toby, glancing him over. He was in an over-sized black tee-shirt and gray plaid pajama pants. His hair clearly hadn't been brushed in days and there were heavy bags under his eyes. Toby could just barely make out a few scars on one of his arms through the crack in the door.

"C-Caiden…?"

The boy glared at him. "Just shut the fuck up and come in."

And with that the door opened fully and Caiden turned and walked back into his room. Toby reluctantly followed after, stepping into the dark bedroom and watching as Caiden collapsed onto his back on the bed.

"Close the door," he said without even looking up.

"Oh. Y-yeah." Toby quickly went to close the door. The room was now just barely lit through a crack in the curtains.

"Sit down," Caiden muttered, still not looking up or moving from his position laying on his bed, arms spread out at his sides and legs hanging over the edge of the mattress.

Glancing around for somewhere to sit, Toby finally settled for the floor, sitting criss-cross on the gray carpeting and resting his hands in his lap. They didn't stay there long, though, as soon he found himself picking at the threads in the carpet with his fingers.

"Why are you here?" Caiden sighed.

Looking up, Toby blinked, the look on his face saying he thought it to be perfectly obvious. "Because I'm your frie- because I was worried."

Caiden's eyes turned to glance at him, but he didn't say anything, nor mention Toby's hurried correction. Instead he just looked back up at the ceiling, silent.

"So…" Toby spoke slowly. "Are you okay…?"

He sighed. "I'm… No. No I'm not."

Toby nodded slowly. "Oh."

"Yeah," Caiden repeated, "oh."

It was silent for a few minutes after that. Caiden stared blankly up at the ceiling and Toby picked at the carpet. The air was so tense it felt almost as though it might snap like a taut rubber band.

"I'm not going back to school."

Toby looked up. "You should."

"I'm not."

He looked down again, continuing to pick at the carpet. "I want to you to."

Caiden sighed softly. "Hey. I'm, uh- I'm sorry or whatever."

He glanced up again. He didn't say anything this time though.

Sighing again, Caiden ran a hand through his hair, still staring up at the white ceiling above. "I just… I got out of line, okay? And I… I just… I fucked up or whatever, okay? And I like, apologize and shit, or something." He paused a moment. And then, speaking more quietly, he added. "And… you're not like _not_ my friend. I mean, I don't hate you or anything. I guess you could like, just slip and fall without the dying part and that'd maybe be okay or something."

Toby looked up at the boy, still not saying anything. Caiden was obviously embarrassed, and he gritted his teeth, hand pushing his black hair back from his forehead as he glared up at the ceiling. His cheeks had a visible dusting of red on them.

"Tsundere…" Toby muttered.

Caiden shot him a glare. "What was that?!"

"N-nothing!" Toby quickly amended, waving his hands frantically in front of him in some lame attempt to protect himself from any potential rage the emo boy might emit.

Scoffing, Caiden shot him one more brief glare before looking back up at the ceiling again. "Whatever…"

More silence ensued, and Toby had to briefly reflect on how often they seemed to slip into that silence. After awhile, though, Caiden spoke up again.

"Do you… I mean, you haven't… You haven't asked about the picture. Or Cindy."

Toby shrugged. "I didn't th-think you'd want to talk about it. Bes-sides, it's not my business-ess."

Caiden nodded. He was quiet again for a few moments, then he said quietly, "We were dating. For three months the summer after freshman year. Cindy Janson and I. She was pretty nice. I liked her. A lot. We broke up, though, and I'm pretty sure she's had something against me ever since. She took that picture while we were dating."

Toby nodded. Then frowning, he asked, "If you liked her so much, then why'd you break up?"

He laughed a short, bitter laugh. "Because, she was popular. She had friends, good looks, a great personality, a future… I'm just me. It was fine for the summer, but once the school year began there was no way she could be seen with a freak like me. So… she called me emo, told me to go kill myself, and ended it."

"Wow…" Toby muttered, blinking.

He just shrugged. "Whatever. It was probably a good thing anyways. Why would I want to stay with someone like that? She's a bitch."

Toby nodded, looking down at the floor with a sad expression. He'd stopped picking at the carpet. "Caiden? I-I'm sorry you had to go through that…"

Caiden sighed. "It's fine, Toby. Really. I'm fine."

 _'_ _Pft, yeah right.'_

Both boys jumped, Caiden shooting to sit upright on his bed and turning to look wide-eyed at his door. Toby followed his gaze, seeing nothing but the door. He could figure, though, that whatever Caiden was looking for must be on the other side.

"Smile…" Caiden muttered.

Toby blinked, confused. Then, realization suddenly dawning on him, his eyes widened and he leapt to his feet. Running to the door, he ignored Caiden's strangely desperate cries not to open it, and grabbed ahold of the knob, turning it and pulling the door open.

There sat Smile, in all his husky glory.

"Smile?!" Caiden cried in surprise, looking down at the previously missing dog.

 _'_ _Hey, Ticci,'_ Smile said, something like a smirk painting his mouth.

"What? Where? How?" Toby had a million questions and literally no idea how to word a single one of them.

Reluctantly joining him at the door, Caiden glanced first at Smile, and then at Toby. "You know this dog…?"

Toby nodded quickly. "Yeah, he's uh- He's my dog! Yup, mm hmm! He ran away awhile ago and I've been looking everywhere for him!"

 _'_ _Liar.'_

Toby shot Smile a glare, but Smile just ignored it, snorting and turning his head to look away. Caiden gave them both nervous glances. He'd heard that too.

"So… he's your dog? You sure?"

"Yup!" Toby nodded.

"Uh huh…" Caiden looked down at the creepy husky, scratching his arm nervously. There was something wrong here. The talking dog was Toby's? And what did he mean by liar? Could Toby hear him too? He wasn't sure, but he certainly got that feeling…

"I um- I'm just going to go ahead and take him home now if you don't mind…" Toby laughed a little nervously, grabbing Smile by the scruff and starting to pull him away. The dog snapped at him, though, and so he quickly let go, and Smile followed him downstairs and out of the house. Caiden listened as the front door shut.

Frowning, he turned, walking back into his room and shutting the door behind him. Collapsing back onto his bed, he lay on his back, scratching one scarred arm.

 _'_ _That seemed a bit suspicious… What's going on here?'_

* * *

 **A/N - THIS IS A TWO-PARTER. It was getting pretty long and I was nowhere near done, plus it's already late, so I decided to split it.**

 **So yeah, SORRY THIS IS A DAY LATE. Honestly, I had every intention of sticking to my schedule, but I had an unexpectedly busy week with school and such, and so I actually didn't have much time at all to write. So yeah, sorry. -_-**

 **ANYWAYS, I hope you like it! Don't forget to review! See you all Sunday (hopefully!)**

 **P.S. I got my E.J. tee-shirt in the mail today... That's right, be jealous. ;)**

 **crazy dragon ninja - Yeah, I know. That idea literally just popped into my head as I was writing the chapter. It wasn't planned at all. I feel kinda bad I added that in for her... Whoops...**

 **Doctor Homicide 157 - I KNOW, I'M SORRY. I KEEP FORGETTING AND THEN REMEMBERING AND FORGETTING AGAIN. SOON. SOON, I PROMISE. THEY WILL RETRIEVE THEM SOON.**


	24. Chapter 24

When Toby got home that afternoon he had Smile close in tow. Opening the door of the inn, he shakily ushered in the dog, following behind. It was hardly ten seconds before L.J. appeared, shouting and incredulous.

"Smile?! Where were you?! What happened?! Toby, where'd you find him?!"

He probably would have kept going, but Toby was quick to cut him off there. "He was at Caiden's house."

L.J. blinked. "Who?"

Toby pursed his lips, trying to think of how to describe him. "U-um... He's about y-yea high," he waved his hand at about the level of his chin, "really p-p-ale, wears all bl-l-ack. Uh... Piercings in his lip," he pulled down on his lower lip to exemplify, "and... oh, and really mean. Hates people."

L.J. raised an eyebrow. "So... a shorter, emo, male Lucy?"

Toby thought about it for a moment, and then nodded his head. "Yep, b-basically."

At this point the clown decided he was no longer interested, instead turning his attention back to Smile. It was hard to tell, looking at his face, whether he was relieved or angry. "What happened, Smile? We've been all over looking for you. I've spent days searching!"

Smile made a gesture they thought maybe could have been a shrug, replying, _'I'm not sure.'_

"What do you mean you're not sure?" Now L.J. definitely looked mad. "You suddenly fuckin' lost it and ran out, and we haven't seen you since. Explain yourself right now!"

Smile glared at him. _'I said I don't know, alright? I just heard this weird beeping sound and it wouldn't stop. I couldn't take it anymore, and so I ran away to get away from it. When I woke up I was leashed up in that stupid vampire's house and I had to wait for a chance to escape. Just so happens Toby showed up and got me out.'_

L.J. frowned. "A beeping sound?"

At this point their conversation was cut abruptly short by the sound of someone coming down the stairs. Looking up, they watched as Hoodie slowly approached, looking a little confused. "Hey, guys... Smile, when'd you get back...?"

 _'Just now,'_ the dog replied with an expression only described as a smirk.

"Ah..." He looked at the three of them, clearly a little lost. "Well... I was just on my way out, so I'm going to wait until later to ask for the rest of those details."

"Wh-where you headin' to?" Toby asked curiously.

"Well, I just brought Ben back home and he's sleeping upstairs now, so I was just gonna run out to pick up a few things."

"Ah." Toby nodded.

Looking between the two, and then down at Smile, and back up, Hoodie gave them all a skeptical look. "Be quiet, alright? He needs some rest."

They nodded and he cast them another skeptical look before leaving. They watched him go, and then moved into the common room, taking seats and lounging about talking for awhile.

* * *

It was a couple hours later when they heard the front door to the inn opening. Hoodie had come back awhile ago and was upstairs now with Ben, and Grandmama had just left for shopping, so it wasn't either of them. Turning to look, they watched as Sammy, Jeff, Violet, E.J., Mia, Lucy, Natalie, and Lucas all piled in through the front door, shouting and laughing and arguing.

"Cry-sempai!" Mia was whining. "Pay attention to meeee!"

E.J. groaned, rolling his eyes and moving away from her. She followed right behind him, though, and he hung his head in defeat, realizing that there was no escape.

They moved into the common room, all loud and rambunctious. Naturally, it was hardly a minute before "Daddy Hoodie" came storming down the stairs.

"Guys," he hissed, glaring at them all, "Ben is upstairs trying to sleep and you are being way too loud."

"OH YEAH," Jeff shouted, "IS THIS BETTER?!"

"Jeff," Hoodie snapped, "for once in your life, don't be a fucking dick. He almost fucking drowned yesterday."

"Key word— almost," Jeff said.

Lucy rolled her eyes, turning to glare at him. "Hey, what's your problem, douche?"

"Oh, I'm sorry, did the bitch say something?"

The room almost immediately went silent. They all knew where this was going.

"Excuse me?" Lucy scoffed, giving him a wide-eyed look. "I'm sorry, what did you just call me?"

"Let me spell it out for you," he said smugly, leaning into her face, "B-I-T-C-H, bitch."

Toby, standing directly behind Lucy, took a noticeable step back.

"Oh, that's it," she laughed humorlessly, "let's take this outside, shitface."

"After you, slutbag."

"Will you both get out!" Hoodie snapped impatiently. "Get the hell outta here before I kick you both out!"

Before they knew it they were all standing on the front lawn, watching as Lucy and Jeff screamed at each other. Hoodie had practically shoved them all out, locking the door behind them, so for now they were stuck.

"This is so not cool," Sammy grumbled, rubbing her bare arms. "He knows it's November, right? And that this is my inn?"

"Technically, it's Grandmama's inn," Lucas corrected.

She shot him a searing glare. "Shut it before I staple that pretty mouth of yours closed."

He flinched away, muttering, "Jeez, I think you're spending too much time with Jeff and Lucy..." She shot him another glare and he immediately stopped talking.

Watching, slightly amused, as Jeff and Lucy hurled vicious insults at each other, L.J. pulled a bag of candy out of seemingly nowhere, proceeding to munch on it. Interest peaked, Violet leaned over, peering into the bag of candy. "Can I have some?"

He nodded, pulling out a lollipop and handing it to her. "Yeah, sure. Here."

"Thanks!" she chirped, popping it into her mouth. Her face immediately went sour. Spitting it out, she spat furiously on the ground, coughing and spluttering. "Wh-what was that?!"

"Acid pop," he snickered, chewing, ironically enough, on a Snickers bar.

"You fucking dick!" she shouted, glaring at him. In the blink of an eye he was running across the lawn, still eating candy and laughing, as she followed right behind, screaming angrily.

Meanwhile, Mia had continued to bother E.J. this entire time, following him like a puppy desperate for food. "Cry! Cry-sempai! Sempai, why you no notice me?! Sempaaaiiiii!"

He groaned, covering his ears. It was only his first day back, and already he was contemplating re-breaking his leg just to get away.

At this point everything was beginning to get a little crazy. The argument between Jeff and Lucy had escalated and Natalie had stepped in to try and stop it. Mia was bouncing up and down beside E.J., trying and failing to get his attention. Violet was chasing L.J. around the lawn.

Toby stepped up, about to try and join Natalie in separating the two screaming teens, but as he raised an arm to talk, he found himself accidentally whacking Sally in the face just as she walked up the front path from the school bus.

All hell broke loose.

"I AM GOING TO FUCKING STAB YOU!"

"OH YEAH?! WELL COME AT ME, BITCH!"

"Guys!" Natalie looked between Lucy and Jeff, anxiously trying to think of what to say in order to calm them down.

"GET THE FUCK OVER HERE, L.J.!" Violet ran screaming across the front lawn of the inn, a snickering L.J. not too far ahead of her.

"WAAAAAHHHHHHHH!" Sally wailed, hugging her teddy bear and kneeling in the wet grass. "Toby hiiiiiiiit meeeeeeee!"

"N-no I didn't!" he cried, looking around panicked.

"YOU BETTER RUN, YOU ASS."

"I'M NOT GOING ANYWHERE, YOU RAGING BITCH."

E.J. sighed, pulling Natalie out from between the two screaming teens. He was beginning to worry she'd have a panic attack and pass out or something. Before he could tell her so, though, he was suddenly tackled down by a shouting Mia.

"CRY-SEMPAI! PAY ATTENTION TO MEEEEE!"

Slamming open the front door to the inn, Masky glared out at everyone. "Will you all please be quiet for once in your lives?!"

They all turned in unison to glare at him. "SHUT UP, SIR DOUCHEBAG!"

His face turned red and he glared at them all, just stopping himself from stomping his foot on the wooden porch. Spinning around, he marched back into the house, slamming the door behind him. Meanwhile, the chaos had continued, and everyone was running about screaming. Sally was still crying, Lucy and Jeff were still fighting, E.J. was still attempting to get Mia off of him, Violet was still chasing after L.J., Natalie was still worrying, and Toby was still panicking.

Throwing open one of the upstairs windows, Hoodie looked out, brow furrowed in confusion. Seeing the chaos below, he sighed, shaking his head. "Oh for the love of..." He shut the window again, pulling the curtain closed over it. He was worried at this rate that Ben was never gonna get any sleep.

Violet was beginning to run out of breath, and paused, watching L.J. gleefully sprint away. How on earth did he have so much energy all the time? Oh, right, he was still devouring candy as he ran. Sugar. Fucking sugar.

Kneeling down beside Sally, Toby tried to calm her down, failing miserably as she only began to cry even harder. Natalie, officially pulled away from the Lucy and Jeff situation, instead decided to go help him, crouching beside the crying girl and pulling her into her arms. Toby watched, pouting, as Sally almost immediately calmed down, smiling and laughing as Natalie tickled her stomach. So not fair.

Managing to finally push Mia off of him, E.J. stood up, brushing off his clothes. He was getting more than sick of listening to Jeff and Lucy's insults now, which had become increasingly creative as the argument went along, and decided it was about time to break up the two. Someone would start throwing fists if no one (with more strength than Natalie) stepped in soon.

"YOU'RE SO UGLY, YOU COULD BE A MODERN ART MASTERPIECE!"

"OH YEAH, WELL YOUR MOTHER WAS A HAMSTER AND YOUR FATHER SMELT OF ELDERBERRIES!"

"Oh no," Sammy, who they had all forgotten was still standing there with Lucas, mumbled, "Now they're on to the movie insults."

Stepping between his two best friends, E.J. physically pushed them apart, as they were now practically breathing the same air. They struggled at first, but he just continued to hold them apart until they calmed down a bit. After that they just huffed at him, crossing their arms and essentially pouting while turning to face in opposite directions. Mission: success.

Jogging over, still tired from her chase after L.J., Violet grabbed Jeff, yanking him away and quietly scolding him off to the side. This earned a few weird looks, but no one took much mind of it. The next interruption quickly stole their attention away.

' _Hey, dipshits.'_ They all looked up at the sound of Smile's voice, seeing him standing in the doorway, tail wagging. It had popped open again when Masky slammed it earlier. _'Ben's trying to sleep, so shut the fuck up.'_

Unable to help himself, Jeff snapped back, "You shut the fuck up!"

Sammy gave him a weird look. "Who are you talking to now?"

He blinked, realizing his mistake. Making a quick, lazy attempt to cover his ass, he coughed, saying, "Uh... Uh, you. I told you to shut the fuck up. You're annoying."

Lucas was immediately on the defense. "Hey, don't talk to her like that!"

Sammy whipped around on him. "Will you stop trying to defend me all the time? I can do it myself, you know! I don't need your help!"

He glared at her. "And why not? I'm your friend, aren't I?"

"You're way too friendly!"

"What is that supposed to mean?!"

"You're always on my ass! You won't leave me alone, even when I ask you to, and you're always constantly trying to protect me for whatever reason!"

"That's because I care!"

"Well, stop!"

"But I'm your friend, Sammy!"

"Yeah, well then stop acting like my boyfriend!"

At this point she turned and stormed off. The screen door slammed shut behind her and Smile watched with minimal interest before turning to them all again. It was quiet once more, and so his job had been done. Turning, he nosed the screen door open again and went in.

It was dead silent for a few moments. Lucas looked stricken. Nobody knew what to say. The air felt heavy and taut.

"So..." Mia said, rocking back and forth on her heels, "anyone want pizza?"

* * *

 **A/N - LOOK WHO FLUFFING UPDATED!**

 **I'm so sorry. Really. But I'm a senior in high school and life just... ugh...**

 **ANYWAYS, sorry it's** _ **incredibly**_ **late and that it's really rushed. I just wanted to get it done and move on to the rest of the story.**

 **SO, please don't forget to leave a review! Thanks for reading! I WILL have another chapter up soon, promise!**

 **Bye!**

 **Wolf of Epicness - HECK YES, HE IS**

 **The Exploding Dino (this is from 22, but I want to response anyways x3) - That would be weird! I sorta had something like that happen where Hoodie found Dementia, a Wattpad fanfiction that is sort of like a prequel to this one, but that's it. It would be hilarious though. Imagine what they'd think. O.o**


	25. Chapter 25

It was Thanksgiving Day and everyone was rushing around like crazy trying to get everything together. Grandmama was the grand master of the event, directing everyone this way and that. Each person had a job to perform that day, whether they liked it or not.

"No, no, no!" the old woman snapped, wagging her finger at a very deflated looking Jeff, "Those do not go there! You set them over there!"

Nodding begrudgingly, Jeff carried the basket of apples to the opposite counter, grumbling under his breath as he went.

"Where do these go?" Violet asked, walking into the room with a huge stack of napkins.

"You can put those right on the table for now. We'll worry about setting it later," Grandmama said.

"Alrighty!" the hyper girl chirped, nodding and turning to head out into the dining room.

Just then Sally and Ben came running in. Bouncing up and done excitedly, Sally asked, "What can we do, Grandmama?"

Smiling at the excited child, she pointed to a basket of corn sitting on the floor, saying, "Why don't you two go outside and shuck some corn?"

Eyes brightening, she nodded quickly. "Okay! We can do that!" Then grabbing the basket of corn, she ran out, Ben following behind.

Standing straight again, Grandmama smiled, saying aloud, "I'm so glad they're both feeling better."

Natalie hummed from where she stood by the sink, washing vegetables. "They've both been pretty energetic all morning. I'm thinking Ben might actually be ready to go back to school on Monday."

Grandmama nodded. "Mm, I think so too."

"OUT OF THE WAY!"

L.J. came running into the room, oven mitts on his hands and 'Kiss The Chef' apron flapping around his waist. Pulling open the oven, he reached in, taking out a green bean casserole he had nearly forgotten. Sighing in relief, he set the glass pan on the counter, waving and oven mitt over it to clear away some of the steam.

"Close call?" Grandmama asked with a clear hint of amusement.

Nodding distractedly, he mumbled a small, "Uh huh," before moving to another side of the kitchen, pulling down bowls and ingredients and beginning to mix together the stuffing.

Watching, both interested and weirded out, Natalie mumbled, "Who would've ever known he would be such a good cook."

"I know," Grandmama replied, placing her hands on her hips. "You're not the only one surprised. For someone who didn't even know of the holiday, he's doing shockingly well keeping ups with all of the cooking."

"I think it's weird," Jeff announced, reentering the room with his usual air of smugness. "I mean, come on, what a fuckin' housewife."

Turning his head to glare at the younger boy, L.J. said, "You want to come over here and say that to my face, Woods?"

Jeff opened his mouth to reply, probably with something no one wanted to hear, but just then Lucy came into the kitchen, shoving right past him and nearly knocking him into the counter.

"Hey!" he yelped, catching himself on the edge. "What where you're going, bitch!"

"Jeffery!" Grandmama snapped, shooting him a look that could kill. "You do not use that sort of language in this house!"

Grumbling under his breath, Jeff decided for once not to argue back, instead grabbing a fistful of forks and leaving back into the dining room.

Scoffing, Lucy shook her head. "What a wimp."

"Maybe he was just being respectful," Natalie suggested kindly, shrugging her shoulders. The look she got in reply, though, said that she was being stupid.

"No, he's not respectful. When is he ever respectful? He's just a wimp," Lucy replied.

"OW! WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR, WOMAN?!"

The four occupants of the kitchen all glanced at each other. Sounded like Jeff had said something to piss Violet off.

"Idiot," L.J. mumbled, going back to mixing the stuffing.

* * *

Lucas sighed. He was completely beyond bored. His parents were out of town and he was home alone. And on Thanksgiving of all days. Wasn't this supposed to be a family holiday or something? Apparently they didn't care about that, though, and once again he was alone. Usually he'd just go to the Royal Heights Inn for Thanksgiving, but after the little fight he'd had with Sammy a few days ago they hadn't spoken, and he wasn't sure if he wanted to face that sort of wrathful awkwardness right now.

Rolling onto his side, he closed his eyes. Maybe he could just sleep through the whole rest of the day. Pretend like it never happened to begin with. Before he could go through with such a plan, though, his phone began to buzz.

Opening his eyes, he grabbed the latest model smartphone off of his side table, looking down at the screen. It was an unknown number. Picking up anyways, though, he put the phone to his ear. "Hello?"

He shot up in bed the second he heard who's voice replied. How had she gotten his number? "Jane? Hi. Uh… Happy Thanksgiving."

He smiled when she said Happy Thanksgiving back. The first and probably only person who would say that to him today.

"So… uh… why are you calling me? If you don't mind me asking, that is?"

He listened as she began to explain to him. Her family wasn't home either and she was bored. She wanted to hang out.

Heart pounding hard in his chest, he nodded quickly. Then realizing thats he couldn't see him, he nervously cleared his throat, stammering, "Y-yeah. Yeah, definitely. Sure."

He could almost hear the smile in her voice. She wanted to know if she could come there. To his house.

"Yeah, sure." He was nodding again. His heart had never raced so quick before.

After giving her his address they hung up, and he was left to wait in anticipation for her arrival.

He didn't have to wait long. Hardly twenty minutes later the doorbell rang, and fighting himself not to run right down, he quickly walked to the front door, pulling it open. There she stood, in all her beauty, long brown hair in a sleek ponytail and bright blue eyes wide with excitement, dressed in leggings, fur-lined boots, and a purple sweater.

"Wow, your house is huge. You never told me you're rich?" She was looking around, taking in the giant white house.

"Uh, yeah…" he said, rubbing the back of his neck. He was so nervous. He could feel his palms sweating. "I don't really like to brag about it." He made a mental note that if Sammy had heard that she'd scoff. According to her he loved bragging about it.

"Well, can I come in?" she asked, looking up at him with a cheerful smile. He felt like he could melt.

"Uh, y-yeah. Sure, yeah, definitely. Uh… Come on in." He held the door open, letting her enter.

She wandered around for awhile, Lucas following behind and telling her what each and every room was. Eventually, they came to his.

"This is your room? It's nice," she said, walking straight in and exploring around. He nervously followed behind, clearing his throat.

"Uh, yeah, I guess so."

"You guess? It's awesome! I'm jealous."

He snorted a little. "I guess."

For the rest of the day they hung out, playing video games, watching movies, and chatting. Admittedly, he was having a lot of fun. He always did with her. Jane was a pretty cool girl to hang out with. The whole time his heart was still racing, though, and his palms were sweaty. He couldn't seem to calm himself down.

"Hey, so, I have a question," she said suddenly, drawing him back to reality. "What are your friends like? I haven't gotten a chance to meet them, but I see you alway hanging out with them."

Blinking, he straightened up a bit, trying to think of what to say. "Well, I don't know, they're pretty cool I guess. Sammy, Mia, and I have been friends forever. And uh, I met everyone else this year. They're all pretty chill."

"What are their names?" She looked at him earnestly, as though she were really honestly interested.

"Well, again, there's Sammy and Mia. Sammy's, uh- she's my ex. The one with straight brown hair. Mia's her best friend. She's short, hyper, and has wild blonde hair." Jane nodded to show she was listening. "Then there's Jeff, the guy with long brown hair, Toby, the one who's always ticking his head, Caiden, the really emo one, Natalie, the quiet girl, Lucy-" He choked a bit here. He wasn't sure why, but saying her name made him feel sick. Clearing his throat, he continued, "Lucy, the loud girl with blonde hair, and E.J., the tall quiet guy."

She nodded, smiling a bit. "Cool. I think I know all the people you're talking about. It's a bit hard to remember." She laughed sheepishly. He loved her laugh.

Turning towards the tv, she pointed at it, saying, "Hey, let's watch another movie!"

Nodding, he laughed a bit, grinning wide. "Yeah, sure."

* * *

Jeff had been missing for awhile. Sighing, E.J. wandered around the inn looking for him. Grandmama had assigned him to said task after noticing his absence from the dining room. Honestly, he didn't think he could care less about where his best friend was. He could take care of himself. He was following orders, though, and so off to find Jeff it was.

Reaching the top of the steps, he saw Natalie at the opposite end of the hall. Smiling when she saw him, she waved.

"Hi!" He walked over to join her outside of Lucy and Violet's room. She had her hand on the knob. "Lucy sent me up to grab the flower vase from her room. She says it'd look good as a centerpiece for the dining room table."

He nodded, agreeing. That would look nice. Natalie turned the doorknob, pushing open the door to the room and taking a step forward to enter.

She shrieked.

Quickly separating, Jeff fell backwards onto the floor while Violet toppled onto the bed, sprawling awkwardly across it. There were still clear traces of her lip gloss on his face. They both looked wide-eyed and visibly shaken.

Quickly shutting the door, Natalie turned to look at E.J., her hands slapped over her mouth and eyes wide. He wasn't nearly as surprised, being the only one who previously knew, but he could understand her shock. It was a somewhat unlikely match.

"Should I… I mean…" She didn't seem to know what to say.

Placing a calming hand on her shoulder, he smiled reassuringly. "It's okay, calm down. It's no big deal."

She nodded, slowly removing her hands from her face. Her cheeks were a bright red. "O-okay… Yeah, you're right. No big deal."

Suddenly the door flew open and Jeff came sliding out, shouting, "IF YOU TELL ANYONE I WILL MURDER YOU BOTH."

"T-tell anyone wh-what?"

They all froze, slowly turning to see Toby standing at the top of the stairs. He looked confused.

"Nothing!" Jeff immediately shouted. Violet appeared behind him then, poking her head out from the room. She looked something between embarrassed and upset.

Toby walked over, slowly looking between Jeff and Violet. Jeff, and then Violet. Jeff. Violet. Jeff.

"Why a-are you wearing Viol-le-let's makeup?"

Jeff's cheeks turned a rosy shade of red. "What are you talking about?! I'm not!"

Toby moved forward, getting uncomfortably close to Jeff's face and smelling him. "It smells like watermelon…"

"NOTHING HAPPENED!" Jeff snapped.

Turning to Natalie, Toby said, "Clocky?"

She gave him a nervous look. Not sure what to say. Jeff was giving her a rather deadly glare, but she hated lying to Toby… "Um…"

"Don't you dare, Clockwork!" Jeff yelled.

"Um…"

"Clocky?" Toby whimpered.

"Um…"

E.J. sighed. Poor Nat. "Jeff and Violet were making out."

Jeff gave him an incredulous look. He felt betrayed.

Toby looked startled. Staring wide-eyed at Violet and Jeff, he remained silent a moment. And then he tackled Jeff.

"Ah, Toby!" Violet shrieked, jumping out of the way.

"Toby, get off of him!" Natalie yelled, taking a tentative step forward, and then quickly jumping back as they rolled in her direction.

"How dare you k-kiss my sister!" Toby growled, shakily punching Jeff in the face.

"You're not even fucking related!" Jeff snapped back, kicking him hard in the kneecap.

"What's going on up there?!" They could hear Hoodie yelling from downstairs, followed quickly by the sound of footsteps pounding up the stairs. The fight had escalated quickly, and blood was being shed.

"I don't want y-you near he-her-er!" Toby bit Jeff's arm, making him yell out in pain.

Clenching his teeth, he replied bitterly, "We've been dating for months, so I think you're a little late to that party." Toby growled loudly, hitting him hard in the nose.

"Stop it, stop it!" Hoodie shouted, running down the hall towards them with L.J. close behind. Together they pulled the two boys apart, holding them away from one another as they continued trying to throw swings.

"He kissed Violet!" Toby loudly accused, ticking his neck.

"Oh, fucking- She's my girlfriend, of course I kissed her!"

That made both Hoodie and L.J. pause for a moment, but they recover quickly, dragging the two boys in opposite directions. "I think you two just need to cool down a bit," Hoodie said, pulling Toby off to one side.

While all this hd been happening Violet had attempted sneaking away. She was quickly caught out by L.J., though, who shouted, "Hey! Stay right there, missy!" Flinching, she visibly drooped, nodding compliantly and standing still.

"This is a mess," Natalie murmured quietly, glancing up at E.J.

He nodded. "Yeah… It was bound to happen sooner or later, though."

"Yeah, I guess." She felt a little guilty about finding them out and technically causing the whole mess, but E.J. placed a hand on her shoulder, and she calmed down, smiling reluctantly up at him. He smiled back and she felt a little better.

Lucy appeared then at the top of the stairs. "What the fuck is everyone doing? I asked for that flower vase a half an hour ago."

Natalie and E.J. exchanged a look, trying not to laugh.

She looked irritated. "What?"

* * *

The food was all ready and the table was set. Calling everyone in, Grandmama sat at the head of the table, directing everyone else to take their seat as well. There was some chaos as everyone tried to find a chair, but eventually they all sat, and then it was time to start.

"So, I know some of you are new to the holiday, but what Sammy and I have always done is to share what we are grateful for before beginning to eat. So, this year, I would like the whole family to share." A few heads looked up at this, a couple of smiles were cracked at the word "family". "I'll go first." She closed her eyes, breathing deeply. Then, smiling, she said, "I am grateful to have been blessed with such wonderful guests. There is never a dull moment with everyone living together here. This is the busiest, the brightest, and the liveliest this inn has ever been. Amen."

Everyone, with the exception of Jeff, smiled. He was too busy pretending like he didn't care. L.J. and Sally looked like they were about to tear up.

"Your turn," Grandmama said, looking towards Sammy.

Nodding, Sammy seemed to think about it for a second, before saying, "I am grateful for new friends, even if they do drive me crazy. Admittedly, though, it is nice having more people to spend my time with. Amen."

"Ooh!" Toby piped up. "M-my turn, my turn!"

Grandmama chuckled, nodding towards the excited teen.

Practically bouncing in his seat, eh said, "I am gr-grateful for Caiden and N-Natalie! They're the b-b-bestest friends I've ev-e-er had! A-amen!"

Natalie had to tilt her head down to hide the huge smile growing on her face. Jeff rolled his eyes.

"Well," Masky spoke up, "I'm grateful for the incredibly luck we have had in finding a temporary home willing to hold our wild, ragtag family. Amen."

"I'm grateful for the fact that everyone here is safe and healthy," Hoodie said. Then glancing towards E.J., whose leg was still in a cast, he added, "Almost. Amen."

E.J. shot Lucy a withering glare when she began to snort, trying not to laugh.

"I am grateful for all the fun memories we've all made since coming here!" Sally piped up, hugging her teddy against her chest. She had decided to bring him down to dinner with her.

"I am grateful," Natalie began, rolling her eyes to ceiling as she thought, "for the people around me. Without them, I wouldn't be who or where I am."

"I'm grateful for the opportunity to expand my horizons and learn more about the world and the people in it, Amen," L.J. said, smiling. Grandmama smiled too, reaching over and patting his hand.

Scoffing, Jeff grumbled, "And by that you mean acting like a housewife and spending all day reading People Magazine." This earned a prompt elbow in the side from Violet.

Clearing his throat, Ben said, "Well, I'm grateful for being alive. Amen." That one earned a few sad and reassuring smiles.

"You next," Natalie said, poking E.J. in the side.

Sighing, he paused, thinking, before saying, "I'm grateful for my best friends. And I'm grateful for the absolute loyalty and care they show me. They make my life complete. Amen." Jeff couldn't help but notice that as he was saying this was very pointedly staring at Lucy the whole time. Rolling his eyes, he scoffed, grumbling under his breath and tilting back in his chair. Man-whore.

"Uh… I guess it's me then," Lucy sighed, chewing at her lip. Then sitting up straighter, she said, "I'm just grateful for the life I have. It's not the best, but it could be worse. So, yeah. Amen."

"So insightful," L.J. grumbled.

"Well, I'm grateful for my wonderful friends and family. Amen!" Violet chirped, grinning.

 _'I'm grateful for the food about to be dropped on the floor when all this stupid talking is done,'_ Smile said, grinning widely from his place under the table.

"Jeff, your turn," Violet said, elbowing him gently in the side.

He groaned, rolling his eyes. He was still tipping back in his chair. "No way. This is fucking stupid."

Eyes flashing, she elbowed him harder, making him splutter. "Jeff, just do it. Don't be an ass."

Sighing, he rolled his eyes again, rubbing his now sore side. "Fine, whatever. Uh… I'm grateful for friends and shit, or whatever. Now can we eat?"

She glared at him. "You forgot the amen part."

"Fine, Amen. Can we eat?"

Deciding it was good enough, everyone began to dig in, serving the food and filling their plates to the rims. Soon the table was filled with pleasant chatter and laughing and everyone conversed while enjoying their food. Compliments were thrown towards the chefs, L.J. and Grandmama, who took each boast modestly. The night became fun and light-hearted.

Once dinner was done and dessert had been served things began to quiet down. Everyone retired to the common room, some with plates of dessert and others with full bellies. They sat around, quietly talking and spending time together. Jeff, still in a bad mood, had stormed up to his room earlier, and Masky had also retired, intent on doing some more research. This had left Hoodie to roll his eyes and grumble about his lack of caring for others.

Sally was fast asleep, head on Natalie's lap. After eating two huge plates of food and devouring her bodyweight in dessert she immediately passed out. Ben wasn't far behind, curled up on the floor with Smile.

Standing up from his seat, Toby said, "I-I'm gonna go get some air."

A few people nodded, and he left out the front door, stepping onto the porch. After the warm food and common room, the late November air was cool and chilly. Wrapping his sweater tighter around himself, he looked out at the empty road, watching his breath form a small cloud in front of him. It was so peaceful.

 _'Toby.'_

He jumped in surprise, looking around. Where and that voice come from?

 _'Toby!'_

A chill ran along his spine. As far as he could tell, it wasn't from the cold. Turning, he went to go back inside, but then the voice sounded again, louder.

 _'TOBY!'_

Letting out an audible yelp, he looked around, trying to spot the source of the voice. It sounded like it was coming from nowhere and everywhere all at once. Something about it weirded him out.

 _'Toby, help!'_

The more he heard the voice the more a part of him said that he knew it from somewhere. Something about it was so familiar but he wasn't sure why. It was a girl's voice, but not Natalie, or Lucy, or Violet, or Sammy, or Sally. It was too young to be Grandmama's, that was for sure. So who was speaking to him?

 _'Toby, help me! Help me, Toby! Please!'_

He looked desperately around. Where were they? What was happening? How could he help?

 _'I don't want to die!'_

His eyes widened. He knew that voice now. But a large part of him wished now that he didn't.

Taking off down the porch, he began to run, racing across the dark, empty road and off into the town. He could hear it. Where the voice was coming from. He knew. He had to get there. He had to save her. He couldn't let her die.

 _'Help me, Toby! Help!'_

Inside the inn Sally suddenly sat up, gasping for breath. Startled, Natalie looked down at the hyperventilating girl, rushing to comfort her. A few others stood up and ran over, going to calm her down, but she fought them all away, desperately pushing them off of her and struggling to catch her breath.

Gasping, she shouted, "Toby!"

* * *

It was eight o'clock at night and Jane was still over. They had just finished up watching a scary movie, and she had been clinging onto his arms he whole time, burying her face in his chest. The lights were still off, and the only lighting came from the dimly lit flatscreen. They were sitting on the couch in his room.

"That was scary," Jane whimpered. "Why'd we have to watch it?"

He laughed a little, giving her a look. "You're the one who wanted to watch it."

Pouting, she whined, "Shut up!"

He was in the middle of laughing again when suddenly she was on top of him, lips colliding with his. Surprised, he choked for a moment, before coming to and kissing her back. It was a desperate sort of kissing. The kind that happened when two people really wanted each other, but couldn't take actions on said wants for an extended period of time. It was a kind of kissing that he had never experienced before.

Placing his hands on her hips, he pushed his tongue into her mouth, pleasantly surprised when she didn't immediately reject the move. Instead she kissed him deeper, pressing her body closer against his.

What happened next he could have never imagined.

He felt a slight fumbling around his hips, and then suddenly her hand was in his pants. Disconnecting from her lips, he gasped in surprised, eyes wide as he looked up at her. She gave a smirk, something that his mind registered as being very unlike her, and then she continued kissing him, hand moving under his pants and making his mind go numb.

Before he knew what had happened he was touching her too, and minutes later they had moved onto the bed, stripped off their clothes, and connected, gasping and moaning in a way neither had ever before. After that, it all went black.

* * *

Toby turned a corner, running blindly towards the large, abandoned building before him. Thats as where the voice was coming from. He was sure of it.

Racing in, he paused, listening. Upstairs. Its as coming from upstairs.

Pounding up the creaky wooden steps, he entered the top hallway of the building, desperately seeking out the room she was being held in. He was so close. He could just feel it. She was here somewhere.

Kicking open each door, he coped over every room, looking for her. She had to be here. She just had.

Pushing open the door to one room, he found it dimly lit by a candle. There were a few items, including a sleeping bag, scattered across the floor. A homeless person must be living there.

Moving quickly through the room, he looked around, trying to figure out whether she might be there. Maybe the sleeping bag was hers? Or maybe this person had kidnapped her? It seemed to coincidental to him that someone else might be here at the same time as her.

Turning quickly, he went to head for the door, figuring he'd search the rest of the building for the person, but as he turned he accidentally knocked over the candle with his boot. Looking down, his eyes widened, seeing the old wooden flooring immediately begin to catch. There was no protective polishing, and the bare wood lit quickly. Frozen a moment in fear, he watched the fire begin to spread throughout the room. Then, realizing the danger he was in, he fled the room, back out into the hall.

The walls were already catching and smoke began to fill the air. Coughing, he covered his mouth with his sleeve, squinting to look around. His eyes were beginning to water.

 _'Toby! Help!'_

He froze. There is was again. She was still here.

Looking around desperately, he shouted, "Where a-are you?!"

 _'Toby! Please, I don't want to die! Toby!'_

He ran down the hall, looking one each room again as he went. "Where are y-you?! I c-c-can't find you!"

 _'Toby, help!'_

He coughed. The smoke was beginning to fill his lungs. He couldn't leaver without her though, and so he kept running, checking everywhere he could.

 _'Toby!'_

* * *

 **A/N - Hehehe?**

 **. . . don't kill me please.**

 **ANYWAYS, thanks for reading! Make sure to leave a review! ;)**


	26. Chapter 26

When Lucas awoke the next morning he was lying alone. The bed was cold and empty. His bare skin was sticky, goosebumps covering his arms and legs from the unwashed sweat. He felt gross and dirty.

Finding the strength to move, he went to the bathroom and took a long shower. It seemed as though he couldn't wipe the filth away. It was disgusting. Scowling, he scrubbed harder with the soap, taking caution to wash every little bit of his body. Still, it didn't feel right.

Once he'd dried off and gotten dressed he went downstairs and had a quick breakfast. Then he sat in the living room and put on the morning news. He wasn't really paying attention. He was just afraid to be left all alone with his thoughts. He knew exactly what they'd say.

Honestly, he still wasn't completely sure what had happened. One minute they'd been having a nice, friendly time, and then suddenly- he didn't even want to think about it. How stupid was he? He liked Jane and all, but he didn't really think he liked her _that_ much. He just got caught up in the moment. After all, no girl had ever touched him that way before. It was a new experience for him, and he got overwhelmed. It all happened so fast he had hardly had the time to think about it. Now that he did, though, he'd be lying if he said he didn't regret it. And what about Sammy? And Lucy? Was he just going to forget about them?

"Ah, Lucas," he groaned, placing his head in his hands, "what have you done?"

 ** _'_** ** _Last night there was a fire in an abandoned building on the outer skirts of Eren. A young man was found to be in the building and is in critical condition this morning. Authorities are still looking into what the cause of the fire might have been.'_**

Looking up just in time for the news to switch over to something else, Lucas frowned. A fire? That was unusual…

* * *

When Caiden woke up that morning everything felt different. He couldn't place his finger on why, but it felt as though something bad had happened. Like nothing would ever be the same again.

Leaving his room, he walked downstairs, hoodie loosely thrown on over his tee-shirt and pj pants. When he got downstairs only Kimmie was there, sitting on the couch and watching the news. It was a bit chilly in the living room compared to his own very warm bedroom.

Rubbing his arms, he plopped down onto the couch beside her, watching the daily kitten video play over the local news. He never understood why news channels felt the need to do that. He wanted to watch actual news, not cute videos of babies and kittens. He always go on YouTube to do that.

"You cold?" Kimmie asked, looking over at him. He just nodded, not responding. "Oh, by the way, your mom took Wendy out to go shopping. There's some big sale at GAP she wanted to take her to." He nodded again.

It was quiet for a few minutes while the two watched the news. After awhile Kimmie got up to go make breakfast for them, leaving Caiden alone with the local weather and latest kitten videos.

Sighing, he sunk back into the couch. The news was rather boring today. He was just about to get up and go join Kimmie in the kitchen, when all of a sudden an image of a burning building popped up on the screen, catching his attention. Frowning, he sat back down, looking on with interest as a video of the burning building played, accompanied by the voice of the newscaster.

 ** _'_** ** _Last night there was a fire in an abandoned building on the outer skirts of Eren. A young man was found to be in the building and is in critical condition this morning.'_**

He tuned out at about that point, freezing up when he saw the next video playing on the screen. They had a boy on a stretcher and were carrying him out from the building. He was covered in soot and there was smoke everywhere, effectively covering much of him. The shot only lasted a few seconds, but that was all he needed. Obscured or not, Caiden would've known that face anywhere.

Kimmie was in the midst of whisking together some eggs when Caiden suddenly came flying into the room, eyes wild with panic. Setting down the bowl, she went to ask what was wrong, when he abruptly cut her off.

"You need to drive me to the hospital. Now."

* * *

"What could have happened to him?"

Lucy, E.J., Hoodie, Ben, and Violet all watched as Natalie paced back and forth across the common room, fingers running constantly through her long hair. Toby had never come back from 'getting some air' last night, and she was beginning to panic. Sally's bad dream about him didn't help either, and now she was officially beginning to panic.

"Can't we just call the police to find him?" she asked desperately, turning to look at them all. A few bit their lips, not wanting to reply.

"Um…" Hoodie cleared his throat, deciding to take one for the team. "You can't report someone as a missing person until they're been gone for seventy-two hours."

She clutched her hair in frustration. "Agh, that's stupid!"

"I know, I know," Hoodie agreed, hoping to calm her down a bit, "but that's the law."

"Yeah, well the law is messed up," she muttered in reply, continuing on with her pacing.

"Look, I'm sure he's fine," Lucy decided to interject. "It's Toby. He could have just wandered off and gotten distracted. For all we know he chased a butterfly somewhere and now he's just heading back."

Natalie spun around on her, shooting her the most wicked glare anyone had ever seen the generally sweet girl produce. "A butterfly? You think he chased a butterfly far enough that it would take him the whole night and morning to get back? That's the stupidest thing I have ever heard! Not to mention, it's freaking November! There are no damn butterflies!"  
Lucy actually stiffened, pushing herself back further into the couch. There was really very little that the crude blonde was actually afraid of. Nothing, really, in fact. But she had never seen Nat so angry in all the time they had known each other, nor had she ever heard her come so close to actually swearing. It was unsettling, to say the least.

"Alright, listen," Hoodie was talking again, "let's all just calm down a bit. We don't know what's happened. For all we know, he really did go for an insanely long walk. We can't be sure. But either way, panicking isn't going to help us figure it out."

Natalie still looked like she wanted to run out there and start looking for him, but realizing that Hoodie was right, she slowly calmed down, releasing the tension that had built up in her shoulders. She had to be strong. It was for Toby.

"Alright, first thing's first, where could he have gone? Where would Toby go?" Hoodie asked, looking around at everyone.

They all thought about it for a moment, but no one was really coming up with anything. Toby didn't really go anywhere, aside form school, and that would be a really odd place to run to Thanksgiving night after eight pm.

"Oh, wait," Ben suddenly said, straightening up and blinking in realization, "what about his friend? The emo one? That he said he was grateful for?"

Their eyes all widened, realizing he may actually be onto something. "You're right!" Violet exclaimed excitedly. "Toby's, like, obsessed with Caiden! Maybe he went to his house!"

"Does anyone have his phone number?" Natalie asked.

They all shook their heads no. Deflating a bit, Natalie sat down, placing her head in her hands. She just wanted to lay down and forget about all of this right now.

"Wait, Toby always called him from Masky's phone," Hoodie suddenly spoke up. "Maybe if we check the call history we can find his number."

Natalie lifted her head again, looking a little hopeful. Volunteering to get the phone, Violet ran upstairs, returning a minute later with Masky's phone in hand. Within minutes they had Caiden's number and were calling him.

* * *

Caiden's phone started to vibrate in his pocket.

Pulling the old flip hone from the pocket of his hoodie, he opened it up, not bothering to check the caller ID. He was too busy watching the road ahead, anxiously awaiting their arrival at the hospital. "Hello?"

"Oh, hi, Caiden?" It was Natalie.

"Uh… hi?" How did she get his phone number?

"Um, have you seen Toby anywhere? We haven't seen him since last night and we're all pretty worried…"

He blinked. Did they really not know what had happened? How? "Are you fucking kidding me? You don't know? He's at the hospital."

"What?!" she shrieked. It sounded like she was beginning to panic.

"It was on the news this morning! There was some huge fire and Toby was in it. They said he's in critical condition. I'm on my way there right now."

Now she was most definitely hyperventilating. "O-okay… Th-thanks… I, um- Uh, yeah… B-bye…" The line went dead.

Taking a deep breath, Natalie turned to the rest of the group. "Toby's in the hospital."

There was an immediate, collective shout of, "WHAT?!"

"Caiden said there was a fire and Toby somehow got caught up in it."

It was silent for a moment as they took in this information. Then Ben exclaimed, "How?!"

"I don't know!" Natalie snapped, making them all flinch back. As it turned out, even she was scary when mad.

"Alright, let's just calm down," Hoodie said, breathing deeply. "We'll take this one step at a time. First of all, who should be going to the hospital, and how should they be getting there?"

"It's not too far," Lucy said, shrugging. "We could just walk."

"Alright," he nodded, "now to the other part. Who's going?"

"Me." Natalie immediately stepped up. Her eyes were burning intensely. No one was about to tell her no.

"Me too," Violet added, raising a hand. A little more quietly, she added, "He's like a brother.. I wanna make sure he's okay."

Hoodie nodded, satisfied. "I'll come with you two. Everyone else stay here. I don't want to overcrowd him. If it's severe enough they amy not even let any of us in, so it's better if only a few come."

Everyone nodded, understanding. They hated to admit it, but he was right. Not everyone could go to check on him. It would be far too much.

"Alright, Natalie, Violet, let's go." The girls both followed behind Hoodie, heading out the door. They walked fast, wanting to get there as soon as possible. Everyone else watched them go, wondering how hurt Toby was, and whether he would be alright.

* * *

Caiden sat in the hospital waiting room, leg shaking impatiently and hands folding and unfolding in his lap. Kimmie was next to him, reading a magazine. Every now and then she would glance over, casting him a worried look, before going back to her Woman's Day. Neither said a word.

"Family of Tobias Wright?"

Caiden immediately looked up, seeing a nurse wandering into the waiting room. Jumping to his feet, he went over, stopping before her with an anxious look on his face. "Yes?"

She looked down at him, blinking. "Oh, are you the family of Tobias Wright?"

He paused. "Well, no, but I'm his friend."

She smiled apologetically. "I'm sorry then. Only family is allowed in to see him right now."

He had to fight to keep his patience. It would do no good to lose it on her. "Well, they're not here right now."

She smiled again. "I'm sorry."

Irritated, he tried to think of something. "I'm his boyfriend though."

This got the slightest reaction, as he noticed her flinch a little, blinking in surprise. Then again putting up that fake smile, she repeated, "I'm sorry, but we can't let you in."

Now he was getting really frustrated. Growling under his breath, he shot her a fierce glare, saying, "Hey, listen here, bitch! My best friend was in a goddamn fire and I don't even know why, how, or if he's okay! I came here as fast as I could after finding out, and now you want to tell me I can't even see him?!" Then crossing his arms, he let his glare darken. "You realize the hospital hasn't even called his family, right? Isn't that the responsibility of the hospital, to make the family aware of their loved one being injured?"

She placed her hands on her hips, shooting him a deadly look. "I'm sure the hospital has called to let them know. We wouldn't let something like that slip through without happening."

"Oh really? Then why is it that they called me asking where he was and I had to tell them that he was here at the hospital?"

The nurse started to look uncomfortable. "Well, I'm sure it was just a minor mistake. Perhaps the numbers we had were out of date."

He shook his head. "No. You've already had two of Toby's siblings here in the past. The hospital has both their guardian's number as well as the owner of their building's. You guys just failed to call."

She was actually starting to get angry now. "Listen, kid! We are doing all that we can! And arguing with the staff doesn't help you or your friend any at all! So why don't you just-"

"Arissa!"

The nurse flinched. The doctor was walking up behind her.

"What's going on here? Why is there yelling?" He looked between the two of them, skeptical.

Turning towards the doctor, Caiden burst into tears, sobbing. "I heard that my boyfriend was caught in a fire and that he may be in critical condition. I came straight here to see him, but she's telling me I can't go in because only family is allowed." He continued sobbing, wiping at his face and sniffling. "He's my best friend and the love of my life, and now he may be dying, for all I know." He broke down crying hard.

The doctor looked down at him sadly, sympathy showing through his tired eyes. Then turning towards the nurse, eh gave her a far more stern look, saying, "How dare you deny this boy access? You'll tell a gay child he can't see his boyfriend after he's been in a serious accident? I'm sure his boyfriend would want to see him more than anything right now!"

The nurse looked down, ashamed. Then turning back to Caiden, then doctor asked kindly, "What's your boyfriend's name?"

Sniffling, he looked up through watery eyes. "T-Tobias Wright…"

The doctor nodded. Then asking the secretary, who so far had watched the spectacle with more than a little interest, to look up the room, he turned back to him. "Alright, follow me."

Caiden nodded, and the doctor turned to leave. Kimmie walked over to pat him on the back, muttering, "Didn't know you were such a good actor."

He shrugged, muttering back, "I needed some way to get mom to do what I wanted."

She rolled her eyes, and he smirked a little, before following after the doctor. He was led to a room somewhere in the hospital where the doctor then stopped and turned to him.

"Before you go in, I must warn you that he is severely burned. His condition isn't quite stable yet, and as for the moment we have him under a medical coma to prevent him from moving around and worsening the condition of his body. He will not be awake when you go in, nor is he likely to wake up while you're here. Avoid touching any of his wounds. If nothing should happen, there is an emergency button on the wall to call down the nurse. Alright?"

Caiden nodded, taking it all in. It was a lot.

"Alright." The doctor smiled. "Have a nice visit."

Caiden nodded, and then watched as the doctor left, turning down the end of the hall and disappearing from sight. Then, taking a deep breath, he looked back at the door, taking the cold metal handle in his hand. Counting to three, he opened the door to Toby's room.

* * *

Masky sat alone in his room, typing away on his laptop. The curtains were drawn shut, the door locked, and the lights off. Despite the bright November day outside, inside it was dark. He hardly noticed, though. His whole world was lit by the electronic screen before him.

Chewing on his thumb, he frowned at the page document he had open. It still wasn't making enough sense. He felt as though he were still missing some things.

 **Turned human September 30th.**

 **Following Pastas Confirmed Human:**

 **\- Masky (Tim Wright)**

 **\- Hoodie (Brian Thomas)**

 **\- Jeff the Killer (Jeffery Woods)**

 **\- Eyeless Jack**

 **\- Laughing Jack**

 **\- Violet**

 **\- Ticci Toby (Tobias Rogers)**

 **\- Depressed Sally (Sally Williams)**

 **\- Pretty Lucy (Lucy Mensfield)**

 **\- BEN Drowned**

 **\- Clockwork (Natalie Ouellette)**

 **\- Smile Dog**

 **\- Jane the Killer (Jane Arkensaw)**

 **Humans aware of pasta existence**

 **Strange dreams/breakdowns often resulting in injury.**

 **Pastas affected include:**

 **\- Lucy**

 **\- Violet**

 **\- Jeff**

 **\- E.J.**

 **\- Smile**

 **\- Ben**

 **\- Toby?**

 **Sally having foreshadowing dreams. May be directly connected to apparent madness?**

 **Madness = new form of Slender sickness?**

 **Madness steadily getting worse with each person— something coming?**

 **Everyone becoming more human. Reverting to human-like natures.**

 **Change becoming permanent over time?**

 **Time limit?**

 **Madness may kill?**

He read over his notes, chewing on his thumb, frustrated. He had gotten just about nowhere. If anything, he'd made more questions than answers. What was with this strange madness overtaking them all? Where was it coming from? Why was it only affecting them? It must have something to do with their transformations, but why? They were reliving how they became pastas, but in different ways. It wasn't the same. Why?

He growled, biting off the end of his nail. This was all so frustrating! What could they do? And why them? Were there other pastas being affected, or just this group? And if it was just them, then why them specifically? What was so special about this particular group? Was there something they all had in common? What?

Sighing, he slammed shut the laptop, laying back on his bed and closing his eyes. He might as well give up. It was pointless. This investigation was going nowhere and he was making a complete waste of his time. Not to mention everyone had started to hate him for some reason. Didn't they know he was doing all this for them? The morons…

He covered his face with his hands, groaning. Why him? Why did he have to be the adult in this situation? It sucked, quite frankly. It wasn't fair that of everyone there he was the one who had to take charge and really get down to the bottom of things. He was paying for them to stay at the inn. He was earning all of the money. He was doing all of the research. He was being the adult. So why was Hoodie now treating him like the villain?

Sitting up, he looked around, exhaling slowly as he tried to calm his nerves. There was no use in getting mad. They wanted different things, that's all. He wanted to restore them to their former states, as should be. Hoodie, however, had some sort of an idealistic vision of them all remaining humans. As if.

It didn't make any sense. Why would Hoodie think they could possibly remain as humans? He was just sore because he felt as though he'd had his life as a human taken away from him. He was a moron, though. After all, they'd already been proxies for too long. How could they go back to being human now? It wasn't right. And besides, didn't he see what was happening? Everyone was being possessed by some sort of a madness, one at a time. And it was getting worse and worse as it went, too. At this point, if they didn't change back soon, someone was going to die. And when they did that blood was going to be on Hoodie's hands, not his.

* * *

Hoodie, Natalie, and Violet got to the hospital in record time. Immediately, they approached the secretary, asking where Toby was. After what seemed like a century of checks, trying to prove they were actually his family, they were eventually allowed through to go see him. A nurse led the way, and within a couple of minutes they stood outside his door.

"Alright, you ready?" Hoodie asked, reaching for the knob.

Natalie reached out, quickly stopping him, eyes fixated in a distance land neither of the others could see. Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes, going silent for a moment. Then nodding, released his hand again. "… Go ahead."

He nodded, giving her one more, reluctant look. Then grabbing ahold of the doorknob again, he twisted, pulling it open and revealing the room inside.

Toby lay, covered in burns, in a white hospital bed in the corner of the room. Caiden was sitting in a chair beside the bed, staring down at him. It was totally silent.

Looking up, Caiden saw the three standing in the door, looking in. Blinking, he quickly looked away, not wanting them to see that he had been crying. It would be far too embarrassing. Not to mention that it would completely ruin his reputation.

"What are you doing here?" He was surprised to hear a hint of hostility in Natalie's voice as she entered the room, arms folded under her chest.

"What do you mean, what am I doing here?" he retorted, glaring up at her. She was glaring right back. "You knew I was here. I told you I was on the way to the hospital to see him."

"Yeah, but the secretary said only family was allowed in to see him right now."

"Yeah, and?"

"So how did you get in here?"

He shrugged, looking away again and back at Toby. "I just started fake crying and told them I was his boyfriend and wanted to see him. The doctor pitied me and let me on through."

She scowled. "That's low, Caiden, even for you."

He looked up, shooting her a look. "Is there a problem here? Why are you all of a sudden giving me attitude?"

She scoffed, unfolding and then crossing her arms. "I'm not giving you attitude, and there is no problem."

"Oh, really? Because it seems to me like there is a problem."

"There is no problem!"  
"Guys!" Hoodie whispered, glaring at them. "How about we focus less on whatever petty argument you have going on and more on the injured boy lying in the bed?"

Both teens shot another glare at each other, before reluctantly nodding.

A few minutes later they were all seated in chairs, Hoodie sitting in the corner while Caiden and the girls sat by the bed. Natalie had purposefully chosen a chair on the opposite side of the bed from Caiden, sitting as far away as she could while still staying close to Toby. She held the injured boy's hand gently in hers, looking sadly down at him in his comatose state. Everyone was silent.

It was hard to say any of them had seen something worse. Sure, some had killed people, tearing them apart, but these burns were something entirely different, and it wasn't something that they were used to. His entire body was covered in scabbing wounds and blisters. Most of it was bandaged up, but not all. Some shown through to the outside world. White gauze, stained red and yellow from the blood and puss, wrapped his chest, arms, and even parts of his face. Multiple IVs dripped fluids into his bodies, and a series of wires were keeping him alive.

Natalie felt tears beginning to form in the corners of her eyes. "Oh, Toby…" she whispered.

"I can't look at this anymore," Violet said, standing up and leaving the room, fingers rubbing at her teary eyes. Even Hoodie sat silent in the corner, stiff as the dead.

Caiden hung his head, letting his hair cover his face so that no one else would see him cry. For the first time, he really had a friend he truly cared about, and now he felt he was going to lose him.

* * *

 **A/N - WHY DO I DO THIS TO MYSELF?! ;-;**

 **Don't forget to leave a review! :3**

 **Guest - XD Thanks. I love that line.**


	27. Chapter 27

It'd been a week since Toby was hospitalized. He was still completely comatose. So far the burns had healed very little, and the doctors were fighting everyday just to keep him in a stable condition. Things were really looking towards the worst.

Coming back to school after the short break was something short of torture. No one wanted to be there, and some felt that they probably shouldn't. Natalie walked around all day like a zombie- there in body but not in mind. Caiden didn't look too far from it either. Everyone felt a little out of it after the long weekend they'd had, and school was the last thing that they wanted to deal with at the moment.

"Can we please just cut?" Lucy groaned, leaning back in her seat. It was lunchtime now - halfway through the day - and everyone looked exhausted.

"We've made it this far. Might as well keep going," E.J. reasoned, shrugging.

Violet shook her head, yawning. "No, for once I agree with Lucy. We should just cut. I'm exhausted."

""Who votes for cutting?" Lucy raised her arm in the air, leaning back in her chair a bit. A few other people raised their hands too.

Looking over at Caiden, Violet raised a brow. "I'm surprised you don't want to cut. That seems like something that would be totally up your alley."

He frowned, looking away. It was hard to tell, what with his hair all in his face, but it looked like he might be blushing a bit. "I told Toby I'd come back to school, so at school I'm gonna stay. I don't like going back on my word."

A few odd looks were exchanged among the table, but no one said anything. Jeff, who sat next to Natalie, carefully slid away, seeing her fists clenching under the table. Her face was going red, and it looked like she was barely holding in all her steam.

"Alright, well I'm still ditching." They all looked up to watch Lucy get up from the table, sliding her bag on over her shoulder. "Join me. Don't. That's up to you. Anyways, see yah." Waving a dismissive hand, she turned, walking away. Violet quickly got up and followed, Jeff not far behind. E.J., Natalie, Caiden, and Sammy remained at the table. Mia was out sick. Lucas hadn't shown up to lunch.

* * *

He had no idea how he had gotten there.

Lucas sat underneath the stairwell, Jane beside him. Well, more accurately, on top of him. He wasn't sure when or how it had happened, but he'd been pinned there, and now he was stuck with no means of escape. Whether this was a good or bad thing, though, he had yet to decide.

Placing kisses along his neck, she wrapped her arms around him, pressing so close up against him that he began to confuse the line where he ended and she began. His mind was in a total daze. He wasn't used to attention like this.

"Lukey," she hummed, still kissing him up and down. "Why aren't you kissing me back?"

"Well," he tried and failed to move away a little, "we're still in school… Besides, this is all a little sudden. I don't really… I mean…"

She looked up, giving him quite possibly the saddest look he'd ever seen. "You do like me, right?"

He was quick to nod in agreement. "Yeah, of course I do! It's just-"

"Good, then you shouldn't have any issue with being my boyfriend."

Before he could even have time to react she was kissing him again. He supposed the whole "boyfriend" conversation would just have to wait for later.

* * *

For Caiden, the rest of the day passed by in a blur. He sat through all of his classes without writing down a single word or paying attention to what the teachers said. Most of the time he stared blankly out the window or down at his desk. He scratched tiny, mindless doodles in his notebook, but they all looked like crap and he wound up throwing them out. Everything felt empty and incomplete.

By the time school was over Caiden hadn't learned a single thing. In fact, he'd hardly even noticed time passing at all. He couldn't remember walking between his classes or getting his missed assignments. It was as though time had just seed right forward and he had been unaware of it.

Leaving the school, he began to head straight for home, ready to go lay down and take a long nap. However, upon further consideration, he changed his course of direction, heading towards the hospital instead. He wanted to go check in on Toby. Nothing would have changed, he knew, but there was still always hope some good news might come in.

It took awhile to get there by foot, but once more, it felt to him like no time had passed at all. Soon enough he was standing in the hospital lobby, heading straight towards the stairs. Climbing up to the second floor, he found his way down the long hallways, and finally to Toby's room. He raised his fist to knock, but then remembered that no one would answer. Hanging his head a bit, slightly saddened by that realization, he opened the door instead. Then walking in, he shut it behind him, finding a chair and sitting beside Toby's bed.

He looked almost the same as he had a week ago. The burns had scabbed over some more, but not much. Fresh bandages were wrapped around most of his body, though in spots they appeared tinted red with blood or yellow with pus. His hair was messy and unbrushed. He smelt like a hospital, unsurprisingly. Multiple tubes were hooked up, running into his arms and various other places. A heart monitor beeped steadily beside him. He was still fast asleep.

Blinking away any forming tears, he moved a little closer, staring down at the sleeping boy. They had no idea when he would awake. It was medically induced, but the doctors refused to pull him out of it until they knew for certain he would survive. As long as Toby slept there was always the chance that he may not make it. That scared Caiden more than anything.

Glancing down, he fixated his eyes on the boy's burnt hand. It wasn't terribly burned, though there were still bandages wrapped around his palm. Mostly, though, there were just a few scabs. Slowly reaching out, he carefully took the hand, holding it gently in his own. He didn't want to injure him, after all. But though he wasn't sure why, he really wanted that connection. He wanted to feel that he was there, not just see. He needed that proof that the Toby he saw in front of him was in fact real.

The moment he had Toby's hand in his he began to cry. It was true. This was Toby. And he was hurt and dying. And there was nothing that Caiden could do about it. Tightening his grip ever so slightly on the hand, still careful not to further harm it, he hung his head. There was no one else there other than him and the sleeping body of his best friend. So allowing himself to put down barriers for just a minute, he sat there, and he cried.

* * *

That night at the inn was a rather dull one. No one had much of anything to do or say. Masky was working overtime again. He'd been doing so a lot lately. L.J. was helping Grandmama in the kitchen with dinner. Hoodie had taken a night-job as an assistant at an office building and was off at his second day of work. Lucas still hadn't come over since his argument with Sammy. Natalie had gone to the hospital to see Toby. Everyone else was sitting about doing nothing.

Lucy sat on her bed with a book in her lap. It'd been awhile since she'd had the time to sit down and read, and she'd decided to take the opportunity. She was only about six pages in,t hough, when the door opened and Violet came in. Resisting the urge to sigh, she continued reading, knowing that any second she was going to be interrupted.

"Lucy?"

She knew it.

Moving her bookmark, she looked up, forcing a small smile. "Yes?"

"Um…" Violet sat on her own bed, wringing her hands together and staring down at her lap. "Do you think… Toby's gonna be okay?"

She didn't reply, because she honestly didn't know the answer. Nobody did. It was an impossible question to answer. Instead, she closed her book up and set it down, turning to face the curly-haired girl sitting across from her. "So, how are you and Jeff?"

Her head shot up. "W-what? What do you mean? What about us?"

"You know…" Lucy gave her a sly look. "From what i understand you guys have been together for quite awhile now. A secret relationship, huh? How kinky."

"It's not like that! We just knew that you guys would all make fun of us!"

"You're right, we are. Good judgment."

Violet sighed, hanging her head. This was exactly what she feared of.

"So," Lucy continued, blatantly ignoring her roommate's exhaustion with the conversation, "how far have you guys gone?"

Violet's face turned a fierce red. "W-what?!"

"You know, how far? We all know you've made it to first base, but how about second? Third?" She winked. "Home run?"

"It's really not like that!" Violet shrieked.

"No, no, no! You are not getting out of answering this!" Lucy said, jumping from her bed to Violet's.

Tackling the shorter girl down, she pressed her knees onto her legs, holding her in place as she violently tickled her. Violet lost it laughing, screaming and begging for mercy. Tears fell from her eyes and she continually whined and shouted between laughs.

"St-stop it! I ca- I can't- b-b-breathe! Hahaha!" she gasped desperately, trying in vain to push the blonde off.

"Nope, not until you spill!" Lucy threatened, smirking as she continued to tickle the other girl into submission.

"Never!" Violet shrieked, before losing it again as her sides were tickled.

This went on for about another minute before they heard a slight knocking on the door. Then pausing, they both turned to see Ben poking his head in. He gave them both weird looks.

"Uh, don't mind me… Just making sure no one's dying… I'll be on my way now… Don't let me interrupt…"

He closed the door and disappeared.

It was silent for a few moments, both girls stock still. Then turning to look down at her roommate, Lucy said, "Tell me now and I let you go."

Violet crinkled up her nose, glaring up at her. "Never."

* * *

A piercing scream, followed by rampant laughter, split the air.

 _'_ _What are they doing up there?'_ Smile asked, growing a little as he looked up at the ceiling.

"Who knows," Jeff replied, shrugging. He was laid back on the couch with his eyes closed.

"Shouldn't you be more concerned about it?" E.J. asked, raising a brow. "One of them is your girlfriend."

"Oh yeah?" Jeff sat up, giving him a look. "Well then, shouldn't you be more concerned too? After all, the other one is your fucking schoolboy crush."

 _'_ _Ooh, shots fired.'_

E.J. shot Smile a cool look before returning his equally stony gaze to Jeff. "I don't know where you got this ridiculous idea of me having a crush on Lucy. We're best friends."

Jeff snorted. "Yeah, sure. Whatever you say."

It was silent for a few moments after that, aside from the sound of Violet screaming laughter upstairs.

 _'_ _Do you think she's gonna make it? It sounds like she's dying.'_ Smile said, glancing up towards the ceiling again.

"I dunno. Probably not," Jeff said, shrugging nonchalantly.

"Wow," E.J. deadpanned. "Someone, make him boyfriend of the year right now."

"Your sarcasm is refreshing," Jeff shot back, glaring at him.

 _'_ _You're both dickwads,'_ Smile said, snorting and laying his head down on his paws.

"Alright, dinner's almost ready." Sammy came into the room, looking around. "Where are Ben and Sally?"

"Playing in Ben's room," E.J. replied. "They went up a little while ago. Something about Monopoly."

"Oh god, they're gonna be up there forever," Sammy mumbled, sighing. "And I take it the one screaming up there is Violet?"

There was a general answer of 'yes'.

"And Lucy?"

"The one making her scream," Jeff said, hanging his head over the back of the couch in boredom. "I dunno what sort of torture device she's whipped up now, but it sounds like she's testing it out on Vi."

"Wow," Sammy commented, raising her brows, "someone outta give you a boyfriend of the year award."

Lifting his head up, he looked between her and E.J., before commenting snarkily, "You know, I never realized this before, but you two would make an _excellent_ couple."

"What? Sammy replied, giving him an odd look.

"Shut up," E.J., grumbled, closing his eyes and sighing heavily.

"Just saying. I see some similarities," Jeff replied, more than a tad grouchily.

 _'_ _Ooh, sore spot,'_ Smile snickered.

Jeff glared at him. "Oh, you shut the fuck up."

"Hey!" Sammy snapped. "Uncalled for! Don't tell the dog to shut up, he said nothing."

She walked over and sat beside Smile on the floor, scratching him between the ears. Smile lifted his head, turning and giving Jeff a smug look as he was pet. Jeff just scoffed, turning away.

 _'_ _Jealous much?'_

"I am not jealous of a stupid mutt," Jeff grumbled under his breath, glaring at the back of the couch, which he had now turned fully to face.

E.J. shook his head, leaning back into the couch cushions. "What a child."

* * *

The next morning everyone went to school. After a good talking to from Hoodie the night before (Masky seemed to have given up his father-like position to the other proxy) they had all been forced to attend. There were many grumbles of protest and breathed out swears, but in the end they all wound up at school, and they had no choice but to stay.

"This is fucking bullshit," Jeff grumbled, crossing his arms as they walked through the hallways.

"I know, but there's no real use in complaining about it up and be a man," Lucy replied, shrugging her bag further up over her shoulder.

He gave her a sidelong look. "That's sexist, you know."

"Says the one who calls me a bitch on a daily basis."

Jeff opened his mouth to reply, but had nothing. Turning, he looked to Caiden for help.

The emo teen just shrugged. "Don't look at me. I mean, she kinda has a point."

Lucy smirked and Jeff pouted. "Whatever, you guys are just ganging up on me. I hate both of you."

Lucy rolled her eyes. "And I care because?"

Caiden frowned. "I don't even know if I remember your name."

Jeff gave him an incredulous look. "Jeff! I'm Jeff! How the fuck do you not know my name?!'

He shrugged. "I dunno. I just don't care? Honestly, I thought you were Jack."

Jeff seemed to be struggling to find words. Lucy just laughed, patting him on the shoulder. "Hey, at least he got the J right." Jeff just sighed, hanging his head and apparently giving up.

They arrived at their lockers just in time for Mia to show up, bouncy and hyper as ever. "Hi, guys! Good morning!"

"Morning," Jeff mumbled, putting away his things in his locker. The only thought running through all of their minds at the moment was, _'Why her? Why now? Please no…'_

"So, is everyone ready for a fun day of school?" she asked, grinning widely. This made Jeff pause to turn and look at her as though she were crazy. Lucy and caiden were giving her similar looks.

"What?" she asked innocently, clasping her hands behind her back and rocking on her heels.

"I don't understand…" Caiden mumbled, shaking his head and turning back to his locker.

"Oh, hey, look. It's the emo freak."

They all turned to see two all too familiar people: one, a pretty blonde girl, and the other, a tall, skinny, freckled redhead.

"Oh, hey, look. It's the trash crew. Fancy seeing you here," Mia replied, crossing her arms and glaring at them.

"Oh, hey, look. It's that weirdo short girl. Uh… Mikayla, was it?" Cindy said, tilting her head a bit.

Her glare deepened. "Mia. I didn't know you two hung out."

"Oh, yeah, we're good friends now," Leone replied, smirking. They'd stopped now to face the little group.

"Of course," Lucy scoffed, shutting her locker door, "it figures the school's biggest dickheads would be friends."

"Um, excuse me?" Cindy said, raising her brows and turning her attention towards the other blonde.

"Oh, you heard me, prissy princess," Lucy replied, giving her a clearly forced smile. This put a scowl on her perfectly contoured face.

"You don't have to be a bitch."

"Oh, really?" Mia said, "Because I'm pretty sure that you two were the ones who came over here and started antagonizing us, not the other way around."

Cindy scoffed. "You antagonize us with your very existence."

Caiden rolled his eyes, grumbling, "Go back to Hell."

Leone stepped forward, giving him a challenging look. "What'd you say, fag?"

Looking up at him, Caiden opened his mouth, slowly pronunciating each word. "I. Said. Go. Slip. Fall. And. Die."

Leone looked ready to burst a casket. "Listen here, you emo little-"

"Oh, don't even bother with him," Cindy said dismissively, waving off a hand, "he doesn't matter anyways. He'll kill himself without your help, so there's no point in putting in the effort."

Without any warning whatsoever, Mia suddenly launched herself on top of the other girl.

The other four teens all jumped away as the two wrestling girls rolled around the floor, screaming and shouting. Typically, in most fights they'd seen, girls usually just pull each other's hair and scratch at one another's faces. Not Mia. She was throwing full on punches anywhere that she could possibly land them. Cindy, surprised by the sudden attack, struggled underneath her, trying to fight her way out while clumsily throwing her arms out in any attempt to hit or at least block the smaller girl.

"Hey, someone get that psycho bitch off of her!" Leone shouted, looking around for help.

Jeff shrugged. "I thought you were the big tough guy here." That earned him a glare, but nothing more.

"Get off of me!" Cindy gasped out, moving her head just in time to avoid getting socked in the nose.

"I'm going to fucking kill you!" Mia screamed back. "No one treats my friends that way, you fucking pathological bitch! I'm going to kill you, and then we'll see who's laughing!"

"Alright, break it up! Break it up, I said! Move!"

"Mia, a teacher's coming!" Lucy hissed. The short girl didn't seem to hear, though, and continued beating on the screaming girl pinned below her. There was now some definite blood on the floor, more likely than not coming from Cindy's nose.

Ten minutes and three administrators later, Mia was finally pulled off of Cindy and dragged away to the office. She was taken by another teacher to the nurse. The crowd slowly dispersed, and Jeff, Lucy, and Caiden were left alone in the hall.

"Well then…" Jeff said, turning towards the other two. "That happened."

"Didn't know she had it in her," Lucy commented, sounding both surprised and maybe a little impressed.

The bell rang then, and realizing they were all late for class, the three split, sprinting towards their respective first periods.

* * *

"She did what?!"

Lucy shrugged. "I thought it was pretty badass."

Sighing, Sammy shook her head, pressing her palm to her forehead. "That idiot. What was she thinking? Ugh, and she was doing so _good_ too! She hadn't gone all Black Mia in awhile."

"Black Mia?" E.J. questioned, raising a brow.

Sammy sighed again. "Yeah, she has a big of a temper issue. Sometimes she gets really angry and she just snaps, and there is no stopping her. It almost always ends in chaos. Now she's probably going to be suspended, that idiot."

"So, wait," Jeff piped up, smirking a bit, "you're telling me that that little squeak of a girl, with the poofy blonde hair, and the major ADHD, has a dark side?"

"It's not a dark side," Sammy snapped, glaring at him, "she just has a hard time controlling her anger sometimes. It can't be helped."

"Therapy might help," Lucy mumbled, earning another glare from Sammy.

"What about you?" Jeff asked, turning to look at Caiden. "What do you think? She was defending you, after all."

Everyone turned to look at him, waiting for his answer. He took a moment, seeming to think about it, and then replied, "I think I should probably let her be my friend."

Jeff gave him a thumbs up. "Good choice."

* * *

 **A/N - I'M SO BUSY. AHHHHH.**

 **Anyways, chapter. Done. Posted. Yes.**

 **Don't forget to review! Much appreciated, and thanks for reading. ;)**


	28. Chapter 28

Another week went by without much change. Toby was still in a coma, the pastas were still cranky, and Lucas was slowly spending less and less time with them, and more and more time with Jane. Mia had been suspended after her fight with Cindy, and she wasn't allowed back at school for another few weeks. All in all, it had been a long week, and everyone was beyond exhausted.

The weekend finally rolled around, and everyone was relieved to be out of the hellish building. The inn was a breath of relief after school, and they all immediately settled in to relax, resting after a long week. Natalie, however, was still busy, and she skipped walking home to go straight to the hospital and see Toby. She was followed closely behind by Caiden, much to her chagrin, and though nobody said anything, they could all tell that she was more than sick of the darkly-dressed boy. His constantly checking on Toby had begun to get on her nerves, as she obviously believed it was her job and not his. They also secretly thought that she might be feeling guilty and upset because after Toby was hurt Caiden knew about it long before her. She believed she had failed and was trying to make up for it by being Toby's only caretaker.

Arriving at the hospital, they checked in and went up to Toby's room. As expected, he was still comatose. Quietly, the two teens took seats beside the bed, Natalie reaching out and taking Toby's limp hand in her own. Caiden watched with a pang, wishing more than anything that Toby would wake up again. Just when he had finally begun to accept the hyper boy as his friend, something like this had to come along and happen. At the very least, he thought, he was happy that he'd been able to make up with him before then. If the last thing he had said to Toby was that he wasn't his friend, he didn't know what he would do.

They sat there for nearly an hour, not saying anything. The two didn't have much to talk about to begin with, and so they just sat in a solemn silence, staring at the sleeping boy before them. It was a sad sort of quiet, much like the one heard at a funeral or in the first meeting between two ex-lovers. It didn't feel right to speak.

Natalie shrieked, jumping Caiden from his thoughts. She whipped towards him, eyes wide and mouth opening and closing, desperately trying to form words.

"He moved."

* * *

Nurses and doctors filled the room, forcing Natalie and Caiden out to wait in the hall. Toby was fully awake now, though he couldn't speak yet, and he was obviously confused. Of course, he wasn't in any pain, but that didn't mean that his body was any less damaged. He had to be checked on to make sure that his body was healthy enough to support him being awake, and when it should be considered for him to go home. Judging by how long the doctors were in there, chances were that it was still going to be a long while.

Finally, they left, and the head doctor stopped to speak to them. He told them that he was a bit confused, but his brain seemed to be cognitively functioning well. He couldn't speak yet, as his throat as dry from lying unconscious for nearly two weeks, but that he was able to move his head and hands. He instructed them not to let him leave the bed, and then bid them farewell. One he was gone, the two teens went back into the room, nearly breathless at the sight of Toby sitting up in bed and looking around at the room.

"Toby," Natalie said quietly, eyes tearing up. She rushed across the room, sitting beside him and gently taking his hand again. "Toby, you're awake. Are you okay?"

Toby looked up at her, smiling a bit and nodding. He ticked a little. In a strange sort of way, it was a comforting sight.

Caiden sat beside Natalie, trying to force back any grand show of emotion. Toby looked surprised at first to see him here, but then smiled, clearly happy. Caiden smiled back, glad to see him finally awake. Maybe it was going to be okay after all. Maybe he wouldn't have to lose his only real friend.

* * *

Lucas was furious. How dare they? How dare they judge him? How dare they tell him what to do and not do? How _dare_ they?

He stood in the middle of the Royal Inn's common room, hands curled into trembling fists and gaze directed towards the carpeted floor. Lucy was in front of him, arms crossed over her chest and a heavy glare set in her eyes. Jeff and Violet were also in the room, sitting on the couch together. Jeff looked equally pissed, while Violet was more concerned. Sammy had left the room as soon as he arrived, refusing to speak to him.

"I came here to apologize for what happened the other day," he growled quietly, "not be judged for my own personal decisions."

"She's not good for you!" Lucy exclaimed, glare deepening. "Trust me, if there is any girl in this entire world you do not want to get involved with, it's Jane!"

"Yeah, she's a pathological bitch," Jeff added, using Mia's earlier term.

Lucas shot them both looks of warning, snapping, "She is not! Besides, it's not my fault! Sammy wouldn't take me back and you kept ignoring me!" He glared pointedly at Lucy. "If you both hadn't refused to date me than maybe I wouldn't have had to look elsewhere!"

Lucy looked beyond pissed. "Excuse me?! You're putting this on me?!" Violet and Jeff both visibly winced behind her. "For one, I never heard you ask me out, let's just start there! And secondly, what the fuck kind of an excuse it that?! We wouldn't date you, and so instead you decided to date a fucking psycho bitch?! How the hell does that work?! What part of your stupid little mind thought that that was the perfect solution?! Are you really that fucking desperate?!"

"Well, even if I did ask you out, you would have said no, right?!" Lucas shot back. "And stop calling her names like that! She's not a fucking bitch, she's my girlfriend! And you know what, she's been a lot nicer to me, and cared a lot more about me, than any of you have ever bothered to! If I'm crazy for liking anyone, I think it was you, not her!"

"You're so fucking stubborn, you know that?!" she shouted in frustration. "Why won't you just listen? you have all these people telling you that you should stay away from Jane, and yet there you go, sticking your fucking tongue down her throat!"

"You know what, I'm sick of this!" Lucas shouted back, stomping his foot angrily against the floor. "I'm down with you all putting me down and making me feel like I don't know how to run my own life!"

"That's because you don't!"

"FUCK OFF!"

Lucas spun, storming out of the room. A moment later they heard the front door open and then crash shut, vibrating throughout the house. After all the shouting and slamming, the inn seemed to fall suddenly silent.

Jeff sighed, leaning back into the couch. "Well, he's fucked."

"She's gonna tie him to a chair and feed him to the wolves," Violet tsked, shaking her head.

Jeff shot her a glare, recognizing the reference to his last meeting with the violent girl. "Not funny." Violet giggled, obviously thinking otherwise.

Sighing, Lucy placed her hands on her hips, shaking her head. "Now what do we do? That bitch is going to rake him to shreds and he won't listen to reason."

Jeff sat up, shrugging. "Nothing. If he wants to commit suicide, then let him. It's his choice, not ours. It's just one less pretty boy to clog up the world."

Violet elbowed him, saying, "Hey, he's your friend!"

Snorting, Jeff shook his head, sitting back again. "Hardly."

Lucy sighed again, chewing thoughtfully at her thumbnail and staring in irritating at the wall. "I feel like I need to do something, but I don't know what."

Jeff shrugged again. "Go fuck E.J.. That should clear your head. She shot him a glare. "Say that again, I dare you."

"Leave her be, Jeff," Violet said, standing up and pulling him up along with her. "I like you in one piece, thank you very much."

"I'm not scared of her!" Jeff replied, resisting as Violet attempted to pull him from the room.

Frustrated, she glared at him, quickly elbowing him under the ribs and watching him gasp in pain. Then wrapping her hands around his bicep, she managed to tug him in his startled state from the room, leaving Lucy alone to her thoughts.

Still chewing at her thumbnail, Lucy sat down in one of the plush chairs, sighing heavily. How could she convince Lucas that he was in danger as long as he was with Jane?

* * *

The next few weeks went by in a flash. Toby steadily got better, regaining his speech and some level of movement. Though he was still bedridden, his burns were healing well, and he was able to fully sit up and move his upper body. Natalie and Caiden spent every afternoon by his side, and both their moods steadily got better as they watched Toby's health increase. The doctors said that at the rate things were going, Toby may be able to go home in another couple of weeks.

Lucas, meanwhile, after his fight with Lucy, had gotten closer with Jane than before. They spent nearly all of their time together, and it was rare to see one without the other. He stopped hanging out with the pastas all together, and whenever they passed each other in the hall he pretended as though they didn't exist. He had successfully secluded himself from them, and none of them had spoken since his last visit to the inn.

"Why does everything always happen while I'm not around to see it?" Mia asked, groaning and placing her head against the surface of the table. Sammy had just finished updating her on everything that had happened since her suspension.

They sat at lunch, talking and picking at their gross school food. The day was going slowly, and they were all tired. Violet and Caiden were sharing a bag of candy she had snatched from L.J., and E.J. appeared to be taking a nap. Everyone else was engaged in quiet conversations.

"Oh look, if it isn't the dweeb bunch," they heard a familiar voice say from the end of the table. Looking up, they all simultaneously groaned to see Leone standing there with a smug look on his freckled face.

"Fuck off, freckles," Jeff said, rolling his eyes and sighing. "I'm not in the mood."

"Oh, well then should I come back later?" he replied sarcastically. "You know, at your convenience."

"Just leave us alone," Lucy said, shooting him a look.

"No," he said with a smirk, "I decide when I leave you alone, not you."

Sighing in exasperation, Caiden groaned through a mouthful of Lifesavers, "Oh, just go the fuck away! It has been a long day, paired by a long month, and we're all fucking exhausted. I just ant to sit here, eat my candy, and enjoy some fucking sugar without your gay face up my damn ass!"

They all stared at him, not sure how feel about half of what he'd just said. Leone was the first to snap from his stupor.

"I'm gay? Yeah, right. Says the one who spends all of his time obsessing over his freak boyfriend. How's he doing by the way? Still burning up?"

Caiden went to get up, but Natalie beat him to it, standing up and taking two long strides towards the much taller boy before socking him in the face. Everyone gasped as he went down, shocked at the usually gentle girl's sudden reaction. Clenching her fists, she glared back at them, snapping, "What?" before turning and storming out of the cafeteria. It was quiet after that, aside from Leone's whimpering that he'd been hit.

"Jeez," Jeff finally said, "remind me to never really piss her off."

* * *

Natalie got a detention for punching Leone in the face, and so Caiden went by himself to the hospital after school. When he got there Toby was awake, but a bit delirious from the medication they had just given him for the burns. He wasn't in any pain, but they wanted him to take certain medications to help him heal faster, and they made him a little bit loopy.

"Hi!" Toby greeted him cheerfully as he entered the room. He was sitting up in bed with his hands clasped on his lap.

Sitting down beside the bed, Caiden smiled, snorting at the goofy look on his face. It was entertaining to see him like this. "Hey. How yah doing today?"

"Good!" Toby replied, bouncing a bit. "Can you open the w-w-window?"

He frowned, looking at the cold, gray December sky. "No… It's too cold out."

Toby frowned too. "But I want the window o-open."

"No… I don't think that the doctors would like it if I did that."

Toby looked sad for a moment, saying, "Okay…" but then he perked up, bouncing again and smiling as he looked around.

For the next half-hour or so Caiden sat and listened patiently as Toby went on and on about various things, most of which involved waffles. At some point he had begun to tune out, but was brought back in when Toby suddenly froze, spinning to stare at him wide-eyed.

"Can you k-k-keep a secret?" he asked in a stage whisper. Caiden nodded slowly, giving him a weird look. Taking a deep breath, then, Toby said, "I'm a p-pasta."

Caiden blinked. "You're… spaghetti?"

"No!" Toby quickly shook his head, pouting at him. "No, I'm a pasta! A c-creepypasta!"

He blinked again. This was ridiculous. "You're a fictional serial killer?"

Toby stared him in the eye, dead serious. "Yes."

It was silent for a few minutes as Caiden tried to decide what to say. He knew Toby was delirious, but that was just insane. Where did he come up with these things?

"I can pr-prove it!" Toby said, grinning. Then looking around, as though searching for something, he turned back to Caiden. "I'm T-T-Ticci Toby."

He raised a brow, giving him a doubtful look. Like most middle schoolers, he had, at one point, had a slight obsession with creepypastas, and so he knew which one Toby was referring to. Still, it was a completely ridiculous claim. he knew better than to think those were real, let alone that this goofy, delirious boy in front of him was one of them.

"I am!" he exclaimed again, frowning when he realized that Caiden didn't believe him. "R-read the story, it's t-true!"

"Toby…" Caiden sighed, trying to work out how to gently explain to him that he was making things up.

"No, I really a-am!" Toby exclaimed again, shaking his head almost violently. "Everyone is!"

"Everyone?" Caiden repeated, doubtful.

"Yeah!" he replied, nodding enthusiastically. "J-Jeff is Jeff the Killer, Lucy is P-P-Pretty Lucy, Ben is BEN Drowned, Sm-mile is , E.J. is Eyeless Jack, L.J. is L-Laughing Jack-"

Caiden cut him off before he could go any further. "Okay, okay, I get it." He really didn't. Yeah, maybe the names matched up well, but that didn't mean anything. It was all coincidental.

"You st-still don't believe me," Toby whined, pouting at him.

Sighing, he replied, "Why would I?"

"Ask anything! I c-can tell you!"

He let out a heavy breath. There was no deterring him. "Fine. Then who's Natalie?"

"Clockw-work," he said matter-of-factly.

"Tim?"

"Masky."

"Brian?"

"Hood-die."

"Violet?"

He paused. "I th-think her name's j-just Violet."

Caiden rolled his eyes. "I think you need to lie down."

"No! W-wait, I'm telling the truth!"

Caiden stood up, gently pushing the boy down and pulling the covers over him. "There you go. Why don't you just sleep off that medication? The doctor said it can make you a bit drowsy."

"But-!"

"No buts. Bed."

Toby pouted again, but then sighed, muttering, "F-fine…"

Caiden smiled a bit in triumph, then bid the boy farewell and left the room,s hitting the door behind him. He nodded goodbye to one of the nurses as he left, quietly occupied with his thoughts. As much as he really hated to admit it, a small part of him almost wanted to believe what Toby said. Surely it was all delirious mumbo-jumbo, but… One part of it did make sense to him: Smile.

That dog had a human-like grin, and it had most definitely spoken to him in his mind too. That dog wasn't normal in the slightest, and the more he thought about it, the more he could relate it to the fictional creature of nightmare that Toby had said was him. There was no way they were actually creepypastas, but… Then how could he explain the dog?

* * *

 **A/N - Finally wrote a new chapter! In one day. Hehe. ^^**

 **The rest of the story is officially plotted out, so things should be pretty smooth sailing from here.**

 **Don't forget to comment and hit that star! :) Thanks for reading!**


	29. Chapter 29

_Blood... There was blood everywhere... Blood... Blood... Blood..._

Sally awoke with a gasp, desperately grabbing at the blankets and shooting her eyes about the room. Natalie got up, noticing the young girl's distress, and tried to comfort her, but she didn't seem to notice. The girl's eyes were distant and empty, as though she were stuck in a faraway dream.

"Sally!" Natalie said urgently, gently trying to shake the young girl out of it. "Sally! Sally!"

Finally she seemed to snap back to reality, eyes filling with the darkness of the room and muscles relaxing slightly as her body stilled. Turning to look at the older girl, her eyes then filled with tears, and with a gasp of relief, she threw herself into her arms and began to cry.

"I was so scared," she whispered, burying her face into Natalie's chest. "There was blood. It was everywhere. Everyone kept dying. I was so scared!"

"Shh, shh, it's okay now," the older girl whispered, petting her hair calmingly. "It was just a dream, Sally. It was just a dream."

She looked up at her, sniffling. "But it felt so real."

Natalie stared back, silent for a moment. And then she repeated, "It was just a dream."

* * *

It was a quiet breakfast that morning. The sky was gray and a cold drizzle fell from the gutters. Everyone had slept in and breakfast was an hour later than usual. The food was unusually cold and tasteless.

Sighing, Lucy set down her fork. Standing, she left the room, followed briefly by Ben and E.J.. Sally put her plate on the floor, letting Smile eat the rest. She wasn't hungry.

The day went by quietly. Nobody went anywhere or did much of anything. Sally and Ben quietly watched t.v. in the common room while Smile napped beside them and Lucy and E.J. read on the couches. Everyone else was milling around, bored. L.J. picked up the latest edition of Vogue and began flipping through. Masky wandered back upstairs to his room, which he rarely left nowadays.

Shutting the door behind him, he took a seat on his bed, opening up his laptop. The room was mostly dark, lit only by the cold glow of the gray sky outside. His face was illuminated by the screen of the computer, and his eyes appeared red from the hours spent unmoving in the dark room. He'd become nearly reclusive, only leaving to go to work during the week. His room was the only place he felt he could do something. Let Hoodie take care of everything else— he had his own work to attend to.

Going to the official creepypasta site, he scrolled through the stories for the billionth time, pondering what possible purpose they could have in helping him. They were there. They were real. But though it was certainly interesting, and more than a little weird, they weren't very helpful. He felt that they must be, though. How could they not be?

Chewing at his chapped lip, he clicked through various links, hoping to find something new that might help him. Nothing came up, though, and so once more he was at a dead end.

Sighing, he clicked back onto the home page, about ready to close out and go back to staring at his notes for three hours. However, when the page loaded, he was surprised to see something there that hadn't been there before.

Frowning, he leaned forward, staring intently at the new link. Clicking it, he found himself at a story he had never seen before. Glancing at the lower corner, he found that it had been posted three minutes ago. There wasn't much there. In fact, the story had not a word to it, just a title:

'I Shot Her in the Chest'

Leaning back, he mulled that over for a moment in his head. 'I shot her in the chest'? Again, there was no writing aside from the title. It appeared to be a work in progress, and that concerned him.

"So far every story on this site has been absolutely true," he murmured. "So if that's the case, then how can there be a new one? Does that mean..." He trailed off, retreating to his thoughts. This may very well be the biggest clue he'd found so far. Only— what did it mean?

* * *

Caiden arrived at the hospital early that morning. He knew Natalie came in the afternoon and wanted to avoid running into her. She'd been in a terrible mood since Toby's accident, and for whatever reason, she seemed to have suddenly decided that she no longer liked him. He wasn't sure why, but every time that he was around she gave him attitude. He didn't even know she could give attitude, but apparently he was an exception. He constantly got dirty looks from her, and she seemed especially irritable when he came to visit Toby. In just one month she'd gone from princess sweetie to queen bitch.

Checking in at the front desk, he headed straight towards Toby's room. He'd brought flowers along with him, though he was debating on ditching them somewhere. Was it weird to bring your male best friend flowers? He was in the hospital, though. And besides, it was Toby. Chances were that he'd appreciate it. In the end, he decided to bring the flowers.

Tapping lightly on the door with his fist, he walked in, seeing Toby fast asleep in his bed. Shaking his head, he gave the slightest smile, setting the flowers down on the bedside table and taking a seat beside him. The boy jerked a little, and Caiden quietly wondered if his Tourettes affected him in his sleep too. He didn't know all too much about the condition, honestly, so he wasn't sure. He'd have to google it later.

Sighing, he sat back in the chair, watching his friend sleep. It was weird. He'd never really had friends before, and he certainly would never have imagined that this weird, hyper kid from his science class would eventually come to mean so much to him. Toby was his best friend, if not his only one, though he'd never admit that out loud. If he did then he would never hear the end of it. Not to mention Toby might have a heart attack from the excitement.

Looking down at him, he watched a piece of brown hair fall across his face, touching against his lips before being blown away again by his soft breathing. He seemed so relaxed when he slept. Caiden smiled wryly, jealous. He wished that he could sleep so peacefully.

Standing up, he hesitated a moment, before slowly sitting beside him on the bed. For a few minutes he was still, watching the boy sleep without saying anything. Though they'd made progress in healing, burns still covered his body, and Caiden traced the rough lines with his eyes. Then kicking off his shoes, he swung his legs up onto the bed, cautiously laying down beside him and closing his eyes, careful not to touch his injured body.

Spending a moment getting comfortable, Caiden let out a slow, even breath. He was tired. He was always tired. The worry over Toby hadn't helped much either. For once, he just wished that he could go to bed and then wake up the next morning peaceful and rested, like anybody else would.

There was a slight shuffling beside him, and opening his eyes, Caiden saw Toby was now facing him, curled onto his side. His eyes blinked wearily, then closed again, a soft sigh escaping his lips.

"I love you, Caiden."

Caiden stared at him for a moment. The boy appeared to have fallen back asleep again, and would probably have no recollection of what he'd said later. He knew he'd meant it in a friendly way — this was Toby, after all — but regardless, he was shocked. He didn't know what to say.

Taking in a slow, shuddering breath, he closed his eyes again, calming his racing heart. Then opening his mouth, he whispered, "I love you too, Toby."

* * *

Natalie left that afternoon for the hospital while everyone else started settling down in preparation for dinner and an early night. These plans were interrupted, however, by excited shouting from the front lawn.

Stepping out onto the porch, Sammy and Hoodie were both confused and startled to see Mia standing there with a pile of various objects, mainly weapons, sitting around her feet.

"Hey, guys! Look what I found!"

Striding quickly towards her, Hoodie glared down at the objects, not able to believe what he was seeing. "Where did you find these?"

Mia shrugged, replying, "In some ally in town. They were hidden behind a dumpster."

"What were you doing digging behind a dumpster in an alleyway?" Sammy asked, startled.

She shrugged again. "I dunno. I was bored."

"Let's take these inside. Quickly," Hoodie said, glancing around to be sure no one was watching before grabbing up as many of them as he could. Mia grabbed the last few, curiously following behind him as they went back into the Inn. Sammy looked both confused and concerned.

"Who's are those?" she asked, following behind them and allowing the door to slam shut behind her.

"They're ours," Hoodie said shortly, knowing he had no way of holding onto them without telling he truth.

"Yours?!" Sammy asked in shock. She stopped, standing stock still and staring warily at them. "There's blood on some of them..."

"Yes," Hoodie replied, "yes there is." He set his pile down on the coffee table in the common room, instructing Mia to do the same.

Sammy still hadn't moved. She was frozen in place in the archway. "Who are you people?"

Sighing, Hoodie turned back to face her, asking, "What do you mean?"

She blinked, giving him a cautious stare. "Who are you guys? Really? I mean, you came to this town with no identities, no licenses, no jobs— nothing. And you obviously aren't related. Any of you. I mean, Jeff and Violet are dating, for love's sake! So who are you people really?"

He stared back at her for a moment, Mia standing in the middle with a confused look on her face. Then finally, he replied, "You don't want to know."

Sammy took in a shuddering breath, and then mustering her courage, she stepped forward, saying, "No, I think I do. Who are you?" When Hoodie didn't immediately answer she went on. "Where did you all come from? Why do you all have different last names? Tim's not really your guardian, is he? What about Sally and Ben? Did you kidnap them?"

Hoodie whipped around, snapping, "No!" Then regaining his composure a bit, he went on coldly, "We're orphans. After leaving the orphanage Tim, L.J., and I all agreed to adopt the rest of them rather than leaving them in that Hell-hole."

She raised a brow, bravely skeptical. "Oh really? That seems highly unlikely. Where's your proof of guardianship? All of you are orphans?"

"Yes, all of us," he hissed. This wasn't technically true. Violet didn't know her real family, and Lucy and Toby still had living mothers, as far as they knew. He himself had a family somewhere, as well as Tim. "And we lost everything in a fire, if you must know." A lot of them had had fires before, so it was sort of true.

Just then there was an excited shriek, and Violet launched herself over the upstairs railing, dropping in a crouch to floor and running to the table. "My swords!" she exclaimed, grabbing the duel rapiers from the table and hugging them securely in her arms. This had attracted the attention of some of the others, and now people began wandering down, wondering what was happening.

Sammy shot Hoodie a glare, muttering, "You people are psycho."

He looked back at her calmly. For a moment, she swore she saw a hint of sadness in his eyes, and then he responded, "I know."

* * *

 **A/N - A short but significant chapter.**

 **We're getting towards the end here. Only a few chapters left! Ahh...**

 **Thank you so much for reading, and don't forget to comment and fav!**

 **Wolf of Epicness - Ooh... He wasn't going to, but I rather like the suggestion... Hmmm...**


	30. Chapter 30

**A/N - I'm trying something new! From now on, I will ask you guys a random story-related question each chapter that you guys can answer in the reviews! The question will be at the top and in the usual author's note too.**

 **Today's Question:** Who's your favorite Only Human character? (Pasta or human) Who's your least favorite?

(Maybe if everyone agrees on the least favorite we can kill them off. I dunno.)

* * *

When Caiden woke up Sunday morning the house felt quiet. It was strange. Normally, he'd hear the usual sounds of Kimmie belting out whatever song was on the radio, or Wendy complaining that her cereal was too soggy or the air too cold. Today, though, the house was totally silent.

Stepping out into the hall, he shut the door behind him, starting down the stairs. He was only about a third of the way down, though, when he heard the hushed voices of his mom and Kimmie in the living room, and paused to listen.

"What do we do? Should we tell him?"

"No. No, he's already in a bit of an unstable place right now. I'm afraid if he finds out that it might push him over the edge."

"But what if he tries to contact him?"

"I won't let that happen."

"How can you be so sure? He knows where we live."

"I've already warned him to stay away from us. I promised Caiden that he would never have to see him again, and I don't intend to break that."

"If you're sure..."

"I am."

By that point Caiden had heard enough. Turning, he ran back up to his room, shutting the door and locking it behind him. From there all the energy seemed to leave his body, and he stumbled slowly across the room before collapsing onto his bed, burying his face into the pillows. Despite having just woken up, he wanted nothing more now than to go back to bed.

Sighing, he pulled the blanket over his head, enclosing himself in darkness. He knew exactly who his mom and Kimmie were talking about. It was the same person who had brought him to where he was today. The one who'd left him with those scars. The person who still haunted his dreams every night.

His dad was back in town.

* * *

After the events of the day before, what with Mia coming into the inn loaded with their weapons and masks, things felt tense at the Royal Heights Inn. Sammy glared at them throughout breakfast, aiming specifically toward Hoodie, who picked slowly at his food. Though most everyone else seemed not to notice, Grandmama certainly did.

"Sammy," she whispered, giving her a pointed look. "What is your problem this morning? Stop it."

"Sorry," Sammy whispered back, although she didn't seem much to mean it.

Sighing, Hoodie stood up suddenly, smiling politely and excusing himself from the table. The others watched him go. His plate was hardly even touched.

Sighing, Violet turned back towards the table, saying to no one in particular, "I was thinking of having a girl's day... Anyone up for it?"

"Me!" Jeff said through a mouthful of bacon.

"She said girls, you idiot," Lucy grumbled, shoving a fork full of eggs into her mouth.

"Yeah, no guys," Violet agreed. Then pausing, she added, "Well, except maybe E.J.. And Ben. But that's it."

"Hey, wait!" Jeff said, glaring at her. "Why can they go and I can't?"

"Uh, because they're not annoying?" Lucy suggested.

"What do you mean?" he asked incredulously. "Ben's like the most annoying piece of shit I know."

"Jeff! Language!" Grandmama snapped.

"Ooh, you got in trouble..." Ben whispered, smirking. Jeff just pouted in response.

" _Anyways_ ," Violet said, "I was thinking maybe we could go to the mall in the next town over. Maybe do some shopping."

"Sounds good to me," Lucy replied, shrugging.

"And where exactly are you getting the money for this excursion?" Sammy asked, raising a brow.

"From Tim, duh," Violet replied, as though it were obvious. "He won't even notice. He's too busy being a shut in."

Grandmama stood up from the table, gathering her dishes and heading towards the kitchen murmuring something along the lines of, "I'm going to pretend that I didn't just hear you planning to steal from your guardian."

Shaking her head, Sammy looked down at her food, saying, "I'm not going."

"What? Why not?" Violet asked, surprised.

She glared up at her. "Because you're all psychos and I don't want to be left alone with you."

"But-" Violet was cut off by the sound of the front door opening and closing. A moment later Caiden stuck his head into the room.

"Hey," he said, glancing around at the clearly tense room. "I was just going to ask if Natalie wanted a ride to this hospital this morning..."

Nat glared at him, replying haughtily, "Toby has check-ins and physical therapy this morning. He won't be available til the afternoon."

"Oh," he said, blinking. "Alright..."

Violet snapped her fingers suddenly, exclaiming, "Caiden! If Caiden goes, will you go?"

"What? Why would him coming change my mind?" Sammy asked, frowning.

"Because he's kinda intimidating and scary. That way if one of us psychos freaks out, you have a bodyguard."

"I mean..."

"Hold on!" Caiden said, glaring at the two of them. "Where am I going? And why? And I'm not anyone's bodyguard!"

* * *

"I can't believe you convinced me into this."

"What? She needed a bodyguard."

"I repeat- I am not anyone's bodyguard."

"Whatever you say, BG."

Violet, Lucy, Sammy, Natalie, Mia, Sally, and Caiden were all walking through the mall around noon. It was quiet, being a Sunday, and they strolled across the tile floors to look into shop windows while carelessly chatting. Most of them, anyhow.

"How come I'm the only guy here?" Caiden grumbled.

Violet rolled her eyes. "If you stop groaning under your breath then we can go to the candy shop."

He immediately perked up in response, eliciting a couple of giggles from the girls. Rolling his eyes, he then muttered, "Shut up," making them laugh even harder.

After a few hours spent browsing the mall, the group sat down for lunch in the cafe. Sally swung her legs back forth as she sipped on her milkshake, quietly listening to the conversation.

"I love this new scarf!" Mia exclaimed, tugging at the gray and pink cloth wrapped around her neck.

"I know! The colors are great!" Lucy agreed, nodding. Then pausing, she frowned, looking down and mumbling something along the lines of, "Did I just say pink was great?"

Ignoring Lucy's comment, Violet grinned, saying, "Yeah, it's great. And I like Caiden's new hoodie too!"

"I am _not_ wearing that," Caiden snapped, glaring at her.

"Why not? I bought it for you, after all."

"It's _purple_."

"And?"

"It's fucking purple!"

Rolling her eyes, Natalie muttered, "So? You're gay anyways. Might as well dress like a girl."

Narrowing his eyes, Caiden shot her a glare. "Excuse you? What'd you fucking say?"

Shrinking back, Sally intently stared down at her milkshake, humming quietly.

Looking up, Natalie smiled. "What, me? I said you're gay."

"I'm not gay."

"Oh really? Because you seem pretty attached to Toby."

Sighing, he snapped, "Do you have some sort of an issue with me? Like seriously, what's your fucking problem?"

Grunting in frustration, she yelled, "Leave Toby alone!"

The table fell completely silent. Sally was by now full on singing the national anthem while the rest of the girls awkwardly looked between the emo boy and the usually gentle girl. The air felt as tense as a rubber band about to be snapped.

Gritting her teeth, Natalie slowly sat back. "Just... keep your... _gayness_ away from my best friend. I don't want you to... to influence him or something."

By now Caiden was livid. "You fucking homophobic bitch!" he shouted, clenching his fists. Standing up, he quite nearly jumped at her if it hadn't been for Lucy and Violet quickly grabbing a hold of him. "Let me go! I'm gonna fucking kill her!"

Narrowly avoiding his swinging fists, Lucy snapped, "Calm the fuck down, will you?!"

"Yeah, chill out!" Violet added. "And Sally, quit fricking singing!"

"THE HOME OF THE BRAAAAAAVE... AND THE FREEEEEEEEE!"

"This is a mess," Sammy muttered. Mia quickly nodded in agreement.

"I knew bringing him was a bad idea," Lucy sighed, growling when she nearly got an elbow to the face. "Nat, can you like fucking leave or something?!"

Blinking, she stared first at them, then him, and then them again. And then clenching her fists, she turned, quickly leaving the cafe. The sound of frustrated sniffling drifted behind her.

"Alright, she's gone! Now calm your fucking nerves, will yah?" Lucy snapped.

Grunting, he ripped himself from their grasps, shaking out his arms and letting the sleeves fall back over his hands. His breath was labored and the hood had fallen from his head to reveal his now tousled black hair. The bottom of his hoodie had ridden up to reveal the edge of a white shirt. "She's a fucking bitch. I'm gonna kill her next time I see her."

Sighing, Violet wept her brow, saying, "Listen, I know she was being rude, but she really didn't mean anything by it. I've known her a long time now. Nat's not usually like that. I don't know what's gotten into her."

"How about jealousy?" Sammy suggested sarcastically. "It's clear she's upset about how close you and Toby have gotten."

"Yeah, but that gave her no right to be a fucking homophobic bitch," he replied angrily.

"Why do you care?" Lucy said, rolling her eyes. "You said so yourself, you're not gay. Don't take it so fucking personally."

"Yeah, but my moms are," he snapped back, glaring at her.

They all went silent after that, Mia forming a small "o" with her mouth.

"You... have two moms?" Violet asked carefully.

"No, I have three. Of course I fucking have two."

"Well, I didn't know!"

"Well, yeah! I don't just go around fucking randomly telling people about it!"

"I guess..." she looked away, rubbing at her arm.

It was quiet for a few moments, and then Caiden, who by now was beginning to simmer down a bit, said, "So yeah... I do take it fucking personally." Then flipping his hood back up over his head, he shoved his hands into his pockets, muttering, "Go slip, fall, and die." And with that, he left.

Coughing awkwardly, Sammy said, "Well that was... eventful."

"Worst lunch I've ever had," Mia stated more bluntly.

"OH SAAAAAY, CAN YOU SEEEEEEEE..."

Violet sighed. "Sally, enough with that song already!"

* * *

Making his way down the sidewalk, Caiden sighed, kicking at a loose rock and watching it skitter across the pavement. The sky overhead was gray and cloudy. Somehow, he felt that it matched his mood.

"Fucking bitch," he muttered, kicking the rock again.

What was her issue with him? Yeah, he spent a lot of time with Toby. So what? He was his only real friend. And he was in the fucking hospital. Of course he spent a lot of time with him. It was only natural. So what was her problem?

"So fucking possessive," he muttered again, kicking the rock and watching it bounce ahead of him down the sidewalk. "It's not like she's his fucking girlfriend. She needs to grow the fuck up..."

Hearing two voices, he looked up, turning his attention across the street. There he saw Lucas and Jane walking down the sidewalk, laughing and talking. When he thought about it, he realized that it was actually the first time that he had seen Lucas in awhile.

He'd been just debating on saying something when he noticed Lucas look over at him. They made eye contact for a second, and then Lucas turned away again, staring down at the pavement as he walked. In another moment they turned the corner and were out of sight.

Stopping, he stared after where they had gone to, wondering what had been up with him lately. He kept ignoring them. Had something happened he wasn't aware of? Then shrugging, he kept walking, deciding that it wasn't really his business.

Before he knew it, he found himself standing in front of the hospital. He hadn't realized that that had been where he was walking. To be honest, he hadn't really thought of where he was going. He'd just followed his feet, and apparently tat was where they had led him.

 _'I guess I might as well go in while I'm here...'_

Entering the hospital, he first checked in with the front desk before heading upstairs towards Toby's room. When he reached the now all-too-familiar door, he paused, peeking in through the small glass window to make sure that Natalie wasn't already there. She wasn't, and so he entered, closing the door behind him.

As soon as he opened the door Toby sat up in bed, turning to grin at him. One of many burn marks spread down one side of his face, distorting the skin into a sort of pattern. Caiden had to resist the urge to cringe at the sight of it.

"Hey. Um... How are you feeling?" he asked awkwardly, slowly walking in and standing beside the bed.

"Fine," Toby replied cheerfully. He didn't look fine to Caiden, but at the same time, he supposed that when you can't feel pain you probably would feel fine, even in the condition he was.

"That's good..."

Bouncing slightly in place, Toby looked around, humming quietly to himself. Caiden slowly took a seat on the edge of the bed, awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck.

"H-hey, Caiden?"

"Yeah?"

"Can you h-hear Smile?"

He froze. Shooting his gaze to the other boy, he stared at him. "What?"

"S-smile. Can you hear h-him?"

It felt like his heart had stopped in his chest. "H-hear him? What do you-" He paused to clear his throat. "What do you mean?"

"Well... Can you hear h-him? Because it k-kind-da seems like you c-can."

What did he say in this sort of a situation? Did he admit to hearing the dog speak? And what about that human-like smile? Did he admit to that too? Or would Toby think he was insane?

"It's okay." He looked up to see Toby staring calmly at him. "I kn-know you can."

Caiden stared at him for another moment, and then taking a deep breath, asked, "Why are you asking this now?"

He seemed to think about it for a moment. "Well... I d-dunno. I guess because I kn-know you heard, but you h-haven't said anyth-thing about it. And I guess... I k-kinda trust you with the s-secret."

"Secret?" Was he talking about that stuff he'd told him last time? About creepypastas?

"Yeah. Smile's not really a d-dog. He's more like... l-like a demon, I g-guess."

"And you're... Ticci Toby?"

"Y-yup!"

This was insane. "There's no way. I mean, creepypastas are fictional characters. Not _real_."

Toby looked down at himself, and then back up at him. "N-no... I'm pretty sure I'm r-real."

"But-" He paused, unsure of what to say. He couldn't dispute the fact that he had heard that dog talk. Nor could he erase that haunting smile from his mind. But them all being creepypastas? That was impossible. He wasn't an idiot. There was no way he'd believe something as ridiculous as that. And yet...

He let out a soft sigh. Then turning to face Toby directly, he said, "Alright, let's say I believe you. You guys don't seem like killers. And you don't look exactly like the characters either. Toby wears a mask. And he has like... a tear on his mouth, or something."

"M-masks can be ta-taken off." Fair enough. "And I'm h-human again, s-so the tear is g-gone."

"What?" He couldn't help himself. The story had just gone from ridiculous to absolute bs. "You're human now. What on earth does _that_ mean?"

"W-well a few m-months ago we-we all woke up in the w-woods and we were h-human."

He blinked. "And that works, how?"

"I dunno. It just d-does."

"Right..."

Toby pouted, folding his arms. "You don't believe me... I'm t-telling the truth th-though!"

"I know, but..." How was he supposed to tell him that he was crazy without offending him?"

Clenching his fists, Toby set a determined look on his face. Then taking a deep breath, he launched into a huge spiel. "We all live in S-Slender mansion usually, but th-then one day we woke up dd-eep in the woods on the e-e-edge of town and we were t-totally human. We didn't know what to d-do, and so we wand-dered through the woods until we found t-t-town, and we've been staying at the R-Royal Heights Inn ever s-s-since. But all this weird st-tuff has been happening and everyone keeps gett-tting hurt and whatever. I was the most r-recent one. And Jane the K-Killer's here too, and she's with L-Lucas for some r-reason, and everyone tried to t-t-tell him she was evil, but he w-won't listen and now she's keep-ping him away from u-us. And M-Masky, which is Tim, is tr-trying to find a way to ch-change us all back, but n-not all of us want to turn back b-because it's kinda n-nice being sane ag-gain, and Lucy is actually b-being nice for once, and I l-like using Siri, and Violet wants to be f-f-five again, and Grandmama has good c-cooking, and-"

At this point Caiden had to cut him off for fear that he might pass out. "Okay, Toby, that's enough! I believe you, okay! I believe you!"

He stopped, staring at him for a moment, before slowly grinning. "Really?"

"Yeah, of course. How could I not? You won't shut up about it."

Caiden wasn't sure he'd ever seen him so happy. Toby bounced in place, grinning giddily. It was almost sickening how excited he was.

"Finally!" Toby said. "I felt b-bad keeping that secret from you. I'm gl-glad that it's off my ch-ch-chest now."

Rolling his eyes, Caiden smiled a bit, nodding. "I know, I know. Whatever you say."

* * *

Masky sat in the darkness of his room, face illuminated by the laptop screen. He often found himself like that nowadays. He only ever left to eat and go to work. And even then, he rarely ate with the others. They didn't want him too. He'd become excluded from the rest of them. He was alone.

Sighing, he stared at the screen, refreshing the page every few moments. Nothing. No matter how many times he refreshed, nothing changed. It was still just a title: 'I Shot Her in the Chest'.

Frustrated, he ran his hands through his hair, groaning and laying back on the bed. What did it mean? A new story meant that there was a new pasta. At least, if he was right then it did. But it was nothing but a title. No words.

"What is going on...?" he groaned, closing his eyes and laying still.

He didn't have much time left. Everyone was having strange dreams. One by one, they were all going down, and it was getting worse every time. They'd thought it was bad when Lucy fell down the stairs, and then worse when E.J. jumped out the second-story window, and worse still when Smile disappeared, but now Toby had been in the hospital for weeks- first comatose, and now going through physical therapy. Before they knew it, someone was going to die.

Sitting up again, he refreshed the page once more, chewing at his thumb as he watched it reload. The white screen cleared to show the page. His eyes widened.

 _'There was a time, once, when I thought I loved her.'_

* * *

Sighing, Caiden pushed open the front door to the inn, listening to the familiar sound of the bell ringing as it announced his entrance.

"JEFF. ONE MORE TIME, I SWEAR TO HELL."

"If you want them back, then you better come get them!"

"I AM GOING TO FUCKING KILL YOU."

Frowning, he peeked around the corner into the common room. He quickly regretted it. There stood Lucy and Jeff mid-argument. Jeff was holding, pinched between his forefinger and thumb, what he could only assume to be a pair of Lucy's underwear. Lucy, meanwhile, looked about ready to murder.

"YOU HAVE THREE FUCKING SECONDS TO GIVE THEM BACK BEFORE I REMOVE YOUR EYES FROM THEIR SOCKETS."

"Stop shouting, will you? It's so unbecoming."

"FUCK YOU."

Rolling his eyes, he stepped back around the corner, shoving his hands into his pockets. They were ridiculous.

"Oh, hey, Caiden!" Sammy came into the front hall, smiling in greeting. "Hey, could you do me a quick favor? I think that Jeff left a glass in his room. There's one missing and it's usually him who takes them. Do you think you could grab it real quick? I'd ask him, but..." She sighed, glancing into the next room to see the two fighting teens. "He seems a bit preoccupied..."

Shrugging, he replied, "Yeah, sure. I guess." He had nothing better to do. That was why he was here int he first place.

"Thank you!" She smiled gratefully before turning and heading back through the dining room towards the kitchen.

Looking at the dark stairwell in front of him, he started up it, holding the railing and observing the impeccably clean steps below him. Grandmama took her cleaning seriously, that much was for sure...

Reaching the top, he paused a moment, trying to remember which room was Jeff and E.J.'s. He hadn't been up there much. After all, he hadn't really felt much need to go up there. But it had been pointed out to him before.

After a bit of guesswork, he eventually found the room, recognizable by the complete mess on one side and perfect cleanliness on the other. Closing the door behind him, he entered, looking around in search of the glass.

"Where is it," he murmured, frowning when he didn't see it immediately in sight.

Walking around the room, he checked beside both beds, on and beside the dresser, and even in the beside table drawers. Nowhere to be found.

Getting down on all fours, he lifted the edge of Jeff's blanket, peering under the bed. He froze, and then jumped up, quickly backing away.

There was a knife under the bed.

Holding his breath, he tried to calm down, not wanting to panic and attract attention. The last thing he wanted was for everyone else to come bursting in there.

 _'A knife? Why is there a knife under his bed?'_

Calming his racing heart, he slowly moved to the other side of the room, getting once more on all fours and slowly, cautiously lifting the edge of E.J.'s blanket.

His blood ran cold.

There, laying on the floor under the bed, was a dark blue mask with what appeared to be streaks of some black, tar-like substance dripping from the eyes. Slowly reaching out his hand, he gently touched it with his fingertips. The black stuff was dry, though it felt thick and slightly sticky. Recoiling, he sat up, letting the blanket fall back into place.

 _'Eyeless Jack. Toby was right. He wasn't lying. They are creepypastas. They're killers.'_

Standing up, he held his hand close to his chest, staring, frozen, down at the spot where the blanket had been lifted, and where the mask hid beneath.

The door opened. "Hey, Caiden-"

He screamed, jumping and whipping around, wide-eyed. Ben stared back at him, just as startled.

"Um, are you okay?"

"Uh, yeah. Fine. Why?"

"Well, Sammy sent me up to see if you'd found that glass yet. And you kind of screamed like a girl when I opened the door..."

"Did not." He cleared his throat, trying to calm his nerves. Then glancing quickly around, he spotted the glass lying half-hidden under the blanket on the floor. Bending and grabbing it, he held it up. "Found it."

Ben nodded slowly, giving him a strange look. "Okay... cool..."

Nodding, Caiden grimaced a bit, taking the cup and quickly exiting the room, practically stumbling in his rush to get down the stairs. Ben followed more slowly behind, still watching him weirdly.

Stepping into the kitchen, Caiden set the glass on the counter. Sammy turned, and smiled upon seeing he had brought it down. "Ah, there you are! You were taking so long I was afraid something had happened." Then noticing the look on his face, she asked, "Hey,a re you alright? You look like you saw a ghost."

Bristling, he glared at her, quickly snapping, "No! I'm fine!"

She blinked. "Okay."

He frowned, and then flipping his hood on, muttered, "I'm going home."

"Okay," she repeated, looking just as startled as Ben, who still stood behind them.

Spinning on his heel, Caiden quickly exited the kitchen, making his way out the front door of the inn as fast as he could. In what was probably moments, but felt like hours, he was down the street and headed home.

 _'They're killers...'_

* * *

 **A/N - BOOM. I'M BACK.**

 **Wow, this was a VERY Caiden-centric chapter... Eh, I'm okay with that.**

 **I hope you liked it~**

 **Don't forget to leave a review, and I'll respond to it here!**

* * *

 **Today's Question:** Who's your favorite Only Human character? (Pasta or human) Who's your least favorite?

* * *

 **Wolf of Epicness -** She sure is... And I know. She's nuts xD

Also, yes. Leone must die.

 **trashy septiplier fan -** THERE IS NEVER ENOUGH CAIDEN X TOBY!


	31. BIG NEWS One-Shot!

**First of all, BIG NEWS!**

 _ **Only Human is being turned into a game!**_

 _ **yay**_

 **So, basically, a good friend of mine recently started reading Only Human (after months of me telling him to) and he's hooked. He's also been looking to make a game the last few months but hasn't had any ideas. And so after reading a few chapters, he asked me if I'd allow him to turn Only Human into a game, and of course, I said yes.**

 **Now, I can't** _ **GUARANTEE**_ **anything, but currently, we do have three people (including myself and the wonderful creator of Violet) working on this game. There is an original soundtrack half-made and I'm working on making all of the character sprites. The game will stick as close to the story as possible and essentially be an interactive, visual form of Only Human. It will likely include some mini-games, puzzles, battles, and an interactive plot. All the character sprites and portraits will be made by yours truly, and all the music will be made by my friend, who is also programming the whole thing.**

 **So hopefully, if our motivation keeps up, we will be making Only Human into a full-length game for you guys to be able to play!**

 **ALSO, each character will be voiced-over (and I mean EVERY single one to ever appear in this story), which means that we will need QUITE a few voice actors. If any of you guys are interested in being a part of the game by voicing one of the characters, send me a message and let me know! Seriously, we need 22+ voices. Don't be shy.**

 **Anyways, I just wanted to let you guys know. It is a work in progress, and it will take a long time to complete, but we're determined. And I will keep you guys updated as we make more progress.**

 **Now... on to the one-shot! As an extra-special treat for all you awesome readers! ;)**

* * *

 _ **A Day in the Life of L.J.**_

The morning began the same as any other: L.J. woke up at 4:30 a.m., got dressed, and went downstairs to start a pot of coffee. While he waited, he sat at the counter, flipping through the latest issue of Better Homes and Gardens. Then pouring himself a cup of coffee, he loaded it with sugar and flavored cream. Opening up the cabinet, he quietly hummed to himself, looking through the array of different foods. Then grabbing out a box of pancake mix, he put on the griddle, still humming as he mixed up some batter.

Once he finished cooking breakfast, he washed and cut up some strawberries, lightly sugaring them and setting them aside. Then cutting up some more strawberries, along with other fruits, he tossed together a quick fruit salad. Filling some pitchers with ice water and orange juice, he set them out on the table, along with the strawberries, fruit salad, and two plates stacked high with pancakes. Bringing out the coffee pot, he set that on the table as well, placing plates, napkins, forks, knives, and glasses out in front of each seat. Then returning to the kitchen, he scrambled up some egg whites and mixed in some left over bacon pieces from the day before. Dumping it all into a bowl, he brought it out and set it at Smile's spot under the table, along with a bowl of icy water.

Pausing, he stared at the table for a moment, wondering what he was missing. Then snapping his fingers, he went back into the kitchen, returning with bottles of maple syrup, chocolate syrup, and two dishes of soft butter. Placing these all out on the table, he nodded in satisfaction, pleased with himself.

Checking the time, he saw it was only 5:30, and so leaving the dining room, he headed outside into the garden. Scoping around, he chose a few flowers here and there to pick. Then bringing them all back in, he filled a vase with water and placed them inside, neatly arranging them into a beautiful bouquet. Setting that in the exact center of the table, he went around making sure all the table settings were also neatly centered before finally deciding he was done.

For the next fifteen minutes he sat in the common room drinking his coffee and reading Time. Tim was the first one to come down.

"Hey, L.J.. You're sure up early," he said, stepping in through the archway.

He shrugged. "Usually am."

"Hm," Tim replied uncommittedly. Then heading towards the dining room, he disappeared.

It was another few minutes before Grandmama came in, apologizing for sleeping in.

"Oh, I'm so sorry, Jack-dear! I was supposed to help you with breakfast! I had some trouble sleeping last night, though, and so I suppose I slept in by accident."

Looking up at the elderly woman, he smiled, shaking his head. "Don't worry about, Elizabeth. I didn't mind. I actually had a quite peaceful morning."

"Are you sure?" she asked, chewing at the inside of her cheek.

"Yes, I'm quite sure," he replied, nodding again. She sighed, but then nodded as well, and he watched her head off toward the dining room.

About a minute later, Tim left the dining room, having obviously eaten a very hasty breakfast. He passed Brian in the hall on the way to the stares, and L.J. observed a very tense stare happening between them. Not a word was exchanged, though, and Brian went on into the dining room while Tim went back upstairs, presumably to disappear into his room again until he got hungry and wandered back down.

After that they all streamed down one by one. Natalie and Sally, Sammy, Violet, Ben, E.J., Jeff...

Smile came trotting down the stairs, the sound of his nails clicking on the hardwood echoing into the common room. Padding in, he sat in front of L.J., looking up at him with those unusually intelligent eyes.

 _'Sup, clownface?'_

"Nothing much," he replied, sipping off his coffee. "Your breakfast is under the table."

 _'How demeaning...'_

"You're a dog. Get over it."

The only response he received was a glare, and then Smile too left the room and headed for breakfast.

Rolling his eyes, L.J. closed his magazine, setting it on the table in front of him. And then frowning, he stood up, turning in time to see Brian heading back up. "Hey, Brian? Has Lucy come down yet?"

He paused, seeming to think about it, before shaking his head. "No, I haven't seen her yet."

Sighing, L.J. muttered, "I guess I better go get her up then." Brian gave him a sympathetic look, but didn't offer to help.

Following the other man up the stairs, he then headed for Lucy and Violet's room, knocking loudly on the closed door. "Hey, Lucy, time to get up!"

As expected, no response.

After waiting a minute or two, he sighed, knocking again. And again, no response. Pushing open the door, he walked in, seeing the blonde teen lying face first in her pillow with the blanket haphazardly twisted around her and one leg hanging off the side of the bed. What had he expected?

Shaking her gently, he said, "Lucy, wake up. It's time for school." The most he got in response, though, was a grumbled murmur he couldn't decipher to be English.

Shaking her again, he sighed, seeing that that wouldn't work. So then grabbing the blanket, he yanked it off of her, leaving her tank-top and shorts wearing self exposed to the mid-December air. It wasn't long before she sat up, grumbling, glaring, and shaking.

"What. The fuck. L.J.."

He gave her an impatient glare. "It's breakfast time. You need to get up."

Groaning, she laid back down, yanking the blanket up over her head.

"Go away."

Sighing in exasperation, L.J. grabbed the blanket again, fighting her for it. After a minute, though, he finally gave a good yank, and the blanket toppled off the bed, along with Lucy.

"Ow! What the fuck, L.J.?!"

"Get up!"

"Fine! I will!"

Standing, Lucy shot him the dirtiest look he'd ever seen, snatching a sweater off of her dresser and marching out of the room. Rolling his eyes, he followed slowly behind, watching her make her angry way down the stairs. He couldn't imagine that breakfast with her would be fun.

* * *

It was eight o'clock now and everyone had left. The kids were all at school and Masky had gone off to work. Hoodie himself was working now too, and so he had left as well. The inn was now empty with the exception of him, Grandmama, and Smile.

Sighing, L.J. finished up his breakfast, which he had waited to eat until after everyone else. He wasn't much a fan of sitting at the bustling table with everyone, and it was more relaxing to be able to eat on his own. Cleaning his dish, he made sure that everything had been put away properly. Noticing the fruit salad still out, he saran-wrapped the top of it and stuck it in the fridge for later.

Grandmama came into the kitchen about then, carrying a small hand towel with her. Sliding it into place on the oven handle, she looked up at L.J., asking, "Jack, would you mind running to the store for me? I just need a couple of things for dinner tonight."

Nodding, he said, "Sure. Do you have a list?"

She nodded, quickly leaving the room and then coming back a few moments later with a piece of paper in her hands. Handing it to him, she said, "Also, it's not on there, but could you grab some milk? We're a little low."

He said 'sure' again, and then a few minutes later he was off to the store.

* * *

After finding everything on Grandmama's list, L.J. pushed his cart towards the checkout. He was about to park himself at the end of the line when a woman cut in front of him.

Frowning, he walked around his cart to stand beside her. "Excuse me, but you just cut me off."

She looked up, at first surprised, and then irritated. "Sorry," she said very unapologetically, "I must not have noticed you there." Then she looked forward again, not moving, not saying another word.

Chewing his lip, trying not to snap at her, he said again, "Excuse me, but I was _clearly_ getting into line, and you purposefully cut me off. I would greatly appreciate it if you would please go back to the end of the line."

She shot him a glare. "No way! This is my spot, I got here first. Who do you think you are trying to move me to the back?"

"Oh no, I was here first. You took my spot and I will kindly ask again that you give it back."

"Back off, dick!"

This argument went on for another minute or two before a manager came over.

"Excuse me? What's going on here?"

The woman immediately fell into the victim role. "I got into line to buy my groceries and he suddenly came around and started yelling at me and trying to push me!"

He shot her a glare. "I never pushed you!"

The manager held up a hand to stop him, gesturing for the woman to continue.

Fake sniffling, she exclaimed, "He was shoving me and tugging on me, trying to force me out of line! And he kept insulting me and calling me slurs!"

L.J. bit his tongue, all the while shooting her a glare.

The manager turned back towards him. "And what do you have to say on this?"

Standing tall, he straightened out his shoulders, clearing his throat a bit. "I did not push, or pull, or insult her. Not did I call her any slurs, sir. I was just getting into line to buy my groceries and she suddenly cut in front of me. I politely pointed it out to her and asked if she could please move back and she blatantly ignored me. When I asked her again, she started behaving rudely towards me. I continued to ask her politely to please move to the back of the line, while she responded to each request with rude and foul language."

She seemed aghast. "I did not! He's lying!"

The manager raised an eyebrow, glancing at her, before looking back to L.J. "Was it really so big a deal that she cut in front of you?"

"Well, normally, I might not have said anything. However, she has a mountain of things in her cart, and while I do as well, I am here on business and therefore need to be quick as possible. She has delayed my work and wasted my time."

He seemed surprised. "What sort of business requires groceries?"

He gave him a slightly loathing look. "I work at the Royal Heights Inn in Eren. The owner sent me to get groceries, as we are running a little low. If I'm not back soon then there won't be enough time to prepare lunch for our guests."

The manager blinked, nodded, and then turned back towards the lady, who by now was giving him looks dark enough to kill. "Excuse me, Miss, but I will have to ask that you move to the end of the line."

"Excuse you?!" she exclaimed, clearly taken aback.

He nodded, repeating, "Please move to the back of the line."

She huffed, mumbled a curse word under her breath, and then reluctantly moved, allowing L.J. to move up. He thanked the manager for his assistance, and then watched him leave before turning back to look at the woman and giving her a smirk. She flipped him off in response, and he turned forward again, waiting for his turn to check out.

* * *

Returning to the inn, L.J. came in with arms loaded with grocery bags. Putting everything away, he then immediately set about making lunch for the few guests that were there at the time. He mentally counted in his head: Mr. Jenkins, the Gold's, and that young backpacker.

Serving up three plates of pasta with fresh cut olives, diced tomatoes, and a garnish of basil, he brought them out to the dining room and placed them on the table, which Grandmama had already set with forks, spoons, knives, napkins, and glasses. He brought out small bowls of onion soup as a side, along with two pitchers filled with iced tea and lemon water.

Once the guests had sat down to eat, he prepared Smile's lunch- shredded chicken with rice. He dumped the food into Smile's bowl and set it on the kitchen floor for him to find. He didn't feed him in the dining room when other guests were there, as it often made them uncomfortable.

While the guests ate, he went up to their rooms and tidied up, making their beds and wiping down the surfaces. He checked the other pastas' rooms as well, making their beds and collecting their dirty laundry in a laundry bag. He scowled at the collection of smelly socks left on Jeff's floor, tossing the torn up ones into the trash. Once the rooms were neat, he checked the two bathrooms, setting out new rolls of toilet paper, collecting the dirty towels, setting out freshly cleaned and dried towels, and replacing the old bar of soap.

After wiping down and cleaning both bathrooms, he brought the laundry bag full of dirty clothes and towels down to the laundry room in the basement. He loaded the washer, measured out the detergent, added some softener, and set the cycle. Then taking a load from the dryer, he dumped it out onto the folding table, making a space for him to fold.

He stood, humming to himself, at the table and folded the clean laundry, separating them into piles by who owned what. Jeff's pile was very small and entirely black and white. That figured, he supposed, since the boy only owned two outfits which looked exactly alike. The girls had a bit more clothing, though it was noticeably less stained and ripped than some of the boys. He shook his head at the large tear in the knee of one of Ben's jeans. Setting those aside, he continued to fold and separate until he had gone through the whole pile.

Still with a half hour to go on the washer, he took Ben's jeans and pulled out a sewing kit from one of the many drawers in the room. Sitting up on the dryer, he laid the jeans out on his lap, finding the torn knee and placing a patch over it. He then carefully worked the needle and thread through both jeans and patch, moving in and out all the way around until the patch was securely stitched in place. Tying it off, he snipped off the remaining thread and shook the jeans out to examine them. Satisfied with a job well done, he folded them up, placing them on the top of Ben's pile.

The washer beeped, and opening it up, he began tossing things from the washer to the dryer. He was careful, though, to set aside one of Sally's dresses, Grandmama's skirt, and Violet's bra, hanging those up instead since they would likely shrink in the dryer.

Pulling out the lint tray, he emptied it into the trash and put it back in, setting the dryer and hitting the button to start it. Finally, he began collecting the folded clothes, bringing them up to put away.

After that the rest of the day passed by in a blur. He watered the garden, trimmed the hedges, swept the porch, vacuumed the common room, wiped down the furniture, switched over the laundry, did the dishes, cleaned the kitchen, made a cheesecake for that night's dessert, tidied up the dining room, folded and put away more laundry, swept the stairs, cleaned the front entrance, checked out the Gold's, unclogged a toilet, cleaned the room that the Gold's had been staying in, made a pitcher of lemonade for the next day's breakfast, and paid that month's mortgage on the inn.

Finally relaxing, he sat down on the couch, leaning back with a sigh. Picking up a Woman's Day magazine off the coffee table, he flipped it open, starting to read it. Not even ten seconds later the front door opened.

"We're back!" Violet sang, skipping in. "Hey, L.J."

"Hey, Violet."

"Pft, what a lazy bum," Jeff snorted, following her in. "What do you even do all day?"

"Nothing," Lucy quipped before he could reply, walking by on her way to the stairs. "Just reads those stupid magazines."

"Stop it," Natalie said, frowning. "You guys are so mean."

"It's true, though!" Jeff scowled. "We're at school busting our asses all day and he's just sitting here reading fucking women's magazines. He doesn't do crap."

L.J. glared at him. "I do more in a day than all of you combined do in a week."

Jeff snorted again. "Yeah, right." Then leaving the room, he went upstairs.

Shaking his head, L.J. went back to reading his magazine. It was a minute later when he heard an angry shout from upstairs.

"WHERE THE HELL ARE ALL MY SOCKS?!"

Snickering, he smirked, lifting his magazine to hide the smug look of satisfaction on his face. That's what he gets.

* * *

 **A/N - Hey! I hope you guys liked this little sneak peek into the daily life of housewife L.J.! Thanks for reading!**

 **Wolf of Epicness - I know, right? And yes, I completely agree XD**


End file.
